Trying to Fit In
by BlueMoon007
Summary: Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos come to Auradon from the Isle. They do their best to try and fit in and be good, but its not so easy when you've spent your whole life being bad. Auradon isn't exactly the happily ever after place it seems to be, not everyone is nice or good. There isn't a main plot, other than the adventures of our 4 VKs as they try to fit in in their new world. R&R
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone, this is my first try at some fan fiction so please keep that in mind as you read. I'm brand new at this. Thanks and I hope you enjoy.  
I do not own Descendants.**

Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos sat at two desk like tables in a wide open classroom staring ahead at the headmistress sitting at a desk in the front of the room, she looked friendly but a no nonsense type. She was glancing at several files in front of her, a slight frown on her face as she compared the various folders and glanced up at the four sitting in front of her.

"What grade did you all finish last term?" She cautiously asked. The four children looked at each other and sort of shrugged.

"Grades are kind of … subjective on the isle" Mal supplies.

"Ah, I see. And um… how old are you all?" Fairy Godmother asks since apparently that information wasn't in the folders either.

"I'm 16" Evie answered.

"Me too." Mal added.  
Fairy Godmother looked at the other table where the boys are.

"I'm almost 17" Jay supplied. Carlos just sat there looking down. He wasn't really sure, he was younger than the others and a lot smaller.

"Carlos? How old are you?" Fairy Godmother asked again. Carlos cautiously glanced up and shrugged.

"I'm younger than them." He supplied unhelpfully because anyone could see that much.

"I see." FG said "ok then, well as we don't really know what grades any of you are in and it seems the … um curriculum on the isle varied significantly from Auradon, we will need to determine where you're at currently to figure out which classes to place you all in. So for this first week you'll be taking a few tests, they're not graded or anything like that, its just to determine where you are and find the best fit for you. If you don't know the answer, just leave it blank." She passed out a pack of papers and the four children curiously opened them up.

"English Review" the top of the paper said. There were a couple short stories they were supposed to read and answer questions about. Then questions about books that none of them had ever heard of. Finally, a couple of essays at the end. FG was surprised at how quickly they all finished but was disappointed when she realized it was because they hadn't been able to complete the test. She dismissed them so she could correct the exams.

Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos headed into the cafeteria for lunch, they weren't really sure what to do as they watched the other kids go through some sort of queue and come out with trays with delicious smelling food. Doug noticed them and came up, Ben had introduced Doug to them this morning when they arrived. "Hi guys, um just take a tray from the stack over there, go through the line and take what you would like to eat, follow me." He said a bit nervously. The four VKs looked at each other, a little confused and apprehensive. No one was going to fight them for what they grabbed? Once they saw the food line they understood why, there was more than enough to go around. They followed Doug through the line, not really sure what most of the food was but put a selection of various foods on their plates and found a table off in a corner. Carlos lowered his head so that he was looking at the food straight on and cautiously poked it with his fork.

"what do you guys think it is?" he asked as he continued to poke at it.

"I donno," said Jay with his mouth full, "but if you're not gonna eat it I will" and he pulled a piece off of Carlos' plate and put it in his mouth.

"HEY!" he protested but it was too late so he started in on the food, what ever it was, it was good.

After lunch the kids headed back for Remedial Goodness with the Fairy Godmother. Their now full stomachs and boring subject made all of them want to fall asleep. FG rattled on and on about choices and rules. Carlos tried to pay attention, he really did, Mal had told them all how important it was to try and fit in, but he'd never been this full in his whole life, and Doug had mentioned that later in the day they had something called "dinner" which had something called "dessert" Doug promised it would be sweet. Carlos liked sweet things.

*crack*

Carlos' eyes flew open and his immediate instinct was to cover his head with his hands and curl up in a ball, he peeked out to see FG standing in front of him with a stern look on her face, glowering down at him. She had slammed her pointer onto the boys desk in order to wake him up.

"Do try to pay attention. Falling asleep in my class is not a good way to start out. " FG said sternly.

Carlos mumbled an apology and glanced over to the other table where Mal and Evie sat, Mal gave him a look that clearly was a warning to pull it together, the boy shrinked away from her gaze.

For the next four days in the morning the children took assessment tests in Math, Science, and Auradon History in the morning and then the afternoons were Remedial Goodness with FG as well as a small survey to see what interests they had for potential extracurricular classes.

"Hello, Fairy Godmother." Ben said as he entered the almost empty classroom.

FG looked up from the stacks of tests she was correcting. "Oh hello Benjamin, what can I help you with?" she asked.

"I just wanted to check how things were going this week with the Isle kids. Any concerns?"

FG looked at him with a worried expression, "actually quite a few." She sighed "I'm trying to figure out which classes to put them in, Carlos for example is quite advanced in Math and has excellent reading comprehension, but judging by this essay and how he is in class, he doesn't have the maturity yet for the older grades. Except for Math, I think he'd do best if placed in with his age group, I think he's about 14, but he's not sure when his birthday is and the files are almost worthless." Ben picked up Carlos file only to realize that it contained his name, a drawing he must have done as a child, and a list of disciplinary problems at Dragon Hall over the years. There was nothing about his age or which classes he had taken.

"Jay on the other hand, " FG continued "is barely at his grade level, he seems to struggle with reading comprehension which would account for struggling in other subjects as well, but I would hesitate to put him in a class with younger children because of his intimidating and volatile nature."

"The girls both seem to be right where they should be. Evie seems to have a knack for chemistry, judging by this test, even though they all claim never to have taken it on the Isle"

Ben nodded his head upon hearing this new information. "what about their interests?"

"Yes, well Jay I think needs more of an outlet to get his energy out, so PE or Tourney would be helpful. Evie seems to have an interest in sewing and fashion. Carlos clearly has an interest in computers."

"And Mal?" Ben asked.  
"Mal refused to fill out the questionnaire, but judging by the doodles she does on the side of her test" FG showed one to Ben, "I think an art class would be a good fit." Ben nodded at the drawing, it was very good.

FG continued "We also did a physical on all of them the first day, Nurse Flora was not very happy about what she learned. Injuries included prior broken ribs, several concussions, broken fingers and several other serious injuries on all four of them. The boys in particular look like they'd been severely physically abused and the girls are so underweight and malnourished. There were… other signs of abuse, but neither of them would talk about it. They just shut down if asked." Ben nodded, understanding what FG meant. "Anyway I think I've got their schedules all sorted out now, but I don't think they're going to like it."

The bell rang and students bursting out of classrooms and the lunch room and bustling about the hallway broke through the awkward silence that FG and Ben had as they reviewed the files and test results. The door to the classroom burst open and Jay and Carlos tumbled in struggling over what appeared to be a donut. Evie stepped over them, followed by Mal who plucked the treat out of Carlos' hand and popped it into her mouth. The smaller boy protested as he and Jay scrambled up, and then froze as they saw FG and Ben staring at them all.

"ahem, Children please take your seats. " FG started. Ben nodded at them all and left the room. The four young villians quickly found their normal seats and warily took a seat. "I'm pleased to let you know that I've finished correcting the assessment tests and the surveys you took and have created schedules for each of you that I believe is best suited to your needs and abilities. " as FG said this all she handed each of them a schedule.

Mal raised her hand, "yes Mal?"

"you mean we're not in all the same classes?" She said, her voice shaking just a bit.

"No I'm afraid not all of them. You all have math together though."

The four children looked down at their schedules and started to compare them. They all had math and remedial goodness together. Mal and Jay and Evie also had history and English together. And Mal and Jay also had science together.

Jay had PE three times a week and something called Reading Comp twice a week. Mal had an art class, Evie had sewing and fashion, and Carlos had computer programming.  
Carlos piped up "why are most of my classes for 9th grade and theirs are 10th?" Mal looked over at Carlos' schedule and then back at her own. He was right, only math and goodness class was the same.  
"Well, I thought it would be best for you to be with students your own age, if we find that the classes are too easy for you we can reassess it after the first term." FG explained. Carlos paled and looked slightly sick realizing that for the most part, he was on his own.

Mals eye flashed green as she glared at the FG. She didn't like the idea of the smallest of her group being cut off from the rest of them most of the day. FG noticed Mals look and quickly looked away, she was confident her decision was the right one. "Yes well, children, shall we continue." And she went back to the board to continue with the lesson about when and how to use "please" and "thank you".

Back in the boys dorm room Mal paced back and forth fuming "they can't separate us like this, its not safe."

Carlos huddled on his bed watching her. "Mal, it'll be ok" he bravely stated, Mal flashed her green eyes at him and he shut right up.

"No, Carlos, its NOT ok." She growled back at him. He didn't dare say anything back after that.

There was a knock on the door and Jay headed over to open it. It was Prince Ben.

"Hi guys, " Ben said shyly "I just wanted to see how your first week went. Fairy Godmother told me she gave you your new schedules and you'll start those new classes tomorrow."

Mal glared at him "Yeah about that, why is Carlos in totally different classes? We're NOT okay with that." She snapped.

Ben looked so young and innocent as he glanced around at the four isle kids. "Well, um, fairy godmother felt that those classes would be a better fit for him right now since he is a couple years younger..."  
"We don't know how old he is." Mal interrupted.

"Nothing is permanent; if it doesn't work out we can change it." Ben promised

Mal shook her head "No."  
"I'm sorry Mal, but that decision is out of my hands. Carlos, if you have any problems at all, let me know." Carlos nodded. "So um, curfew is in about 10 minutes, so the two of you should probably head back" Ben nodded towards Evie and Mal before leaving.

Mal looked at the boys and Evie and made a grunting noise out of frustration. "I'll see you in the morning." And she stormed out.

"Evil dreams guys." Evie muttered as she followed Mal back to their room.

Jay and Carlos just looked at each other. "Dude you gonna be ok?" Jay asked tentatively. Carlos was always a bit skittish and the older boy didn't feel comfortable with the younger one on his own. Carlos swallowed hard, and nodded.  
"I don't have much of a choice do I."


	2. Separation Anxiety

**I do not own Descendants.**

 **Not too much excitement in this chapter yet, just sort of getting everything set up.  
If anyone has any ideas for a little mischief for our four friends I'm willing to entertain suggestions for our story here.**

The following morning all four of the VKs sat at breakfast just picking at their food, they'd been such a unit for so long that the idea that one of them wouldn't be right there with them for most of the day just didn't sit right. Back on the isle the only time they were apart was when they had to go home, "going home" to their parents houses was something they all dreaded. The four kids kept each other safe, protected, alive, and being separated always left them vulnerable, especially from their parents. Maleficent and Evil Queen could be ruthless if crossed; but both Mal and Evie felt that their mothers weren't nearly as bad as Jafar and Cruella still they both had a "healthy fear" of their mothers. Jafar's temper was not one to be trifled with especially if Jay didn't bring home enough loot that day. There had been more than one occasion where Evie had to give Jay stitches (since she was the only one that knew how to sew) after Jafar had torn up his back over Jay's failure to produce merchandise or whatever other blunder the boy may have committed. Cruella especially was unstable and the three older kids hated leaving Carlos alone if they knew she was home, not that any of them had a choice. The last time they had to leave him alone with her he didn't show up to school the next day. Evie had snuck into the house and found him, beaten so badly he couldn't walk, and that wasn't even close to the worst. In their experience, separation was dangerous.

Carlos' freckles stood out on his pale skin as he looked ready to pass out. "Drink some juice at least" Evie offered encouragingly. Carlos took a few sips but he felt too nervous. He looked down at his schedule… English was first while the others had history.

The history classroom was in the opposite direction of the English classroom (because of course it was). Carlos managed a weak and nervous smile at his three surrogate siblings; Evie gave his hand a little squeeze as the three older kids walked in the other direction. Carlos turned to see the bustling hallways and wanted to throw up. The bell rang and students hurried into classrooms "shit" he thought as he found the room and walked in, everyone was already seated and turned to stare at him as he tried not to panic while walking to the only free seat in the room.  
"Thank you for joining us. Carlos, right?" He nodded once and sat down. "Class this is Carlos de Vil. Carlos, I'm Miss Daisy." The bubbly young teacher handed him the book they were currently studying. "We started this last week so you didn't miss much; try to read up to chapter 10 as quickly as possible to catch up"

Carlos nodded and looked around quickly; the rest of the class was giving him some strange looks. Some were curious; others looked at him like he was a freak, when he glanced at the girl next to him he saw she had piercing blue eyes. But she quickly looked back to the front of the room as soon as she realized Carlos had seen her.

As it turned out Auradon Prep was a pretty small school so most of the kids in his English class were also in history and science with him, it didn't feel nearly as intimidating once he realized that he was almost the same size as everyone else. Back on the isle he was so much smaller and younger than everyone in his classes it was like wearing a giant target. He was still one of the smaller boys, but the difference wasn't nearly as noticeable now that he was with other kids his own age.

Mal stormed into history with Jay and Evie trying to catch up, if it was possible for a giant gray cloud to be hovering over her head it would have had lightning bolts shooting from it.

"Move!" she yelled at a couple of kids that were in the seats she wanted, they raised their eye brows at her but decided the seats weren't worth a fight and moved to a safer spot, away from the crazy eyed purple haired girl.  
"Mal, calm down" Evie whispered.

"How can I calm down when Carlos is who knows where BY HIMSELF?" She spat back.

"Well there's nothing we can do about it, so could you try and calm down, please." Evie whispered as an angry looking man walked in.

He looked around the room and quickly spotted Mal, Evie, and Jay. He looked less than thrilled that three young villains were in his class.

"I'm Mr. Willerstein. And you three are?" He asked dryly as he brought them their textbooks.  
"Evie" Evie whispered as she took the book and syllabus from the man.  
"Mal" Mal said forcefully.  
"Jay" the boy said nonchalantly.

"Mmhmm" Mr. Willerstein said, "I trust I won't have any trouble with you three" He raised his eyebrows expectantly "will I?"

"No, sir" they muttered, Mal dropped her gaze into a more submissive posture and Jay sat up from his slouched position.  
"Good" Mr. Willerstein said in what was clearly a threat. "Class open your books to page 96"

Mr. Willerstein began his lecture about King Stefan and Queen Leah and glanced pointedly at Mal throughout.  
"Its bull" muttered Mal as Mr. Willerstein covered her mother's story again with all the bias that everyone in Auradon had grown up with.  
"Excuse me, did you have something to add Mal?"  
Mal stood up, "Yes, that's bull, Queen Leah invited EVERYONE to that stupid christening except MY MOTHER, she had every reason to be mad" The rest of the class gasped in horror at any sort of deviation from the story.  
"That will do, Mal"  
Evie grabbed Mals shirt and tried to get her to sit back down, but Mal was too far gone into her rant to notice.  
"I said that's enough. SIT DOWN"  
The tone of their teacher's voice took Mal by surprise and she quickly sat. "Now, if you're done we'll continue, and I expect no more disruptions, have my made myself clear?"

"Yes, sir" Mal spat back. Evie gave her a pleading look to calm down. Finally after what felt like an eternity, the bell rang. Jay, Mal, and Evie headed to their next class.

Mr. Willerstein sighed it was going to be a long year with those three, he could tell. He heard the door open and there was a new student standing there, dressed in a black and white leather jacket, shorts, and unruly black and white hair. "Not another one" he groaned as Carlos took a seat and more students filed in.

"And you are?" He asked coolly as he brought the boy a book.  
"Carlos."  
"Carlos what?" Mr. Willerstein wanted to know who this boy's parent was although he had a fairly good idea already.  
"Carlos de Vil" he said meekly looking down and refusing to meet the man's eyes.  
"Cruellas boy?" Carlos nodded. "I see, well I had your other friends already this morning and I hope I won't have any issues with you." Carlos just shook his head, still not looking up "we shall see" Mr. Willerstein said pursing his lips as he walked back to the front of the room. Carlos glared at him, he didn't expect this class to go nearly as well as English class did.

Carlos probably would have found the class somewhat interesting if it weren't for the fact that the teacher kept calling on him to answer questions. History classes on the isle were all from the villain's point of view and therefore not at all the same as what was taught in Auradon. Carlos knew the basics of the stories, because everyone knew that, but it was the little details that were completely opposite. After apparently answering the third question wrong he decided that saying he didn't know or not answering was safer. This did not seem to pacify this particular teacher though who seemed to get more and more agitated with him as class went on. The girl with the pretty blue eyes gave him a sympathetic look when Mr. Willerstein called on Carlos yet again. Fortunately the bell rang saving him from having to answer.

Carlos was relieved to find that next period was math class with Mal, Jay, and Evie. He found the room easily enough, the other three were already there and Evie had saved him a seat next to her. Math was something you couldn't screw up because of a difference of opinion. It was either right or wrong, maybe some partial credit if you made a small error, but generally, one's opinion wasn't going to change the outcome.

By lunch the four kids were hungry. Starting new classes, and the stress of being separated, not to mention barely eating breakfast it makes one hungry. They'd been in Auradon for a whole week already and by now were able to navigate the lunch line like pros. They all had their favorites, Mal liked the spicy nachos with extra jalapeños, Jay usually grabbed a burger, Evie liked the salad bar, and Carlos discovered the wonders of pizza and chocolate milk.

Mal glanced over at the boy as she popped some nachos in her mouth to eat. "Well? How did it go?" she asked.  
"Ew Mal, gross" Evie chided Mal for talking with her mouth full. Mal rolled her eyes and kicked Carlos under the table raising her eye brows expectantly. This caused Carlos to spray out his chocolate milk onto Jay from the unexpected kick. Jay lunged at Carlos but the smaller boy slipped under the table to hide already. Evie sighed. "good job Mal"  
Mal grabbed Jay by his jacket and pulled him back down while Evie ducked her head to look under the table "Come out" she told the younger boy. Carlos peeked out cautiously glancing at Jay and then Mal. Jay was busy trying to wipe away the milk, Mal just crossed her arms on the table and gave Carlos an I'm-waiting look. He slipped back onto his seat. "English was good. Miss Daisy is nice. And most of the same kids are in both classes." Mal could sense he was holding back.

"And?"

Carlos sighed; he knew what she wanted to know and that she wouldn't let it go till she found out. "And the history teacher is an ass. Apparently you three made quite the impression on him first period." Evie gave a look to Mal and Mal had a brief flash of guilt before rolling her eyes.

"Really? Mal, I don't need any extra help getting teachers to hate me, they do it all on their own!" Carlos complained.

Mal glowered at him, "I didn't do it on purpose, and he IS an ass. Anyway lunch will be over in a couple minutes, what you guys have next?"  
"Fashion concept and design" Evie squealed.

"Computer programing" Carlos said, he was looking forward to that.

"Looks like we have science. " Jay informed Mal, "I guess we'll see you all in Goodness class"

The bell rang loudly and the four looked at each other, they managed to get through their first half day of real classes.


	3. Chemistry and Frogs

**Sorry to those that were following the original story. It went MIA for some reason so I deleted it and reposted it. In hind sight I should have just tried to delete the most recent chapter, but whats done is done. Hopefully all those that followed it before will find it again here.**

 **Thanks for reading, I'd love to know what you think of my story so far, so reviews are welcome. Suggestions will also be considered if they fit.  
Enjoy!**

Mal and Jay opened the door to the science classroom. There were lab benches set up around the room for up to 4 kids. Mal and Jay picked one towards the back of the room. A tall, slender, man with an ominous expression on his face walked in and started handing out lab experiments while quickly explaining what this was covering. Mal and Jay just looked at the directions, they weren't even sure this was English. They tried to decipher the directions and watching what other groups were doing tried to at least copy along the best they could. Mr. Boyle didn't seem very interested in answering questions so Mal and Jay, ever resourceful, determined to figure it out themselves. Jay scanned the directions; he didn't quite understand what it was talking about. He figured the best way to get the various chemicals needed was to "borrow" some from the table next to them. Mal just charged right into the experiment, adding this or that without carefully following the instructions. Halfway through the class a suspicious fog was tumbling out of the beaker, Mal pulled out her spell book and attempted to magic it right, but without really understanding the chemical properties of what they had already done, adding a touch of magic was enough of a catalyst to make the fog melt everyone's shoes to the floor as it rolled over the floor and out the door. Mr. Boyle was quick to action and got everyone out safely and disposed of the dangerous concoction.

Once everyone was safe out in the hall he pulled Mal and Jay aside.  
"And what exactly were you two thinking?"  
"Um well you see, we were just trying to do that stupid experiment.." Jay started with not quite his usual smoothness.  
"Clearly we misunderstood the directions." Mal supplied, making sure her spell book was safely stowed away in her book bag.

Mr. Boyle pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Guys, if you don't understand something you need to ask. I'm going to have to let the Fairy Godmother know about this incident and see what she recommends. I don't know how you managed to melt everyone's shoes but thank the gods no one was actually hurt."

Mr. Boyle now directed his attention to the rest of the class, "Everyone please go back to your dorm rooms and change and get new shoes, I don't know how the chemicals will affect your clothes, then head to your next class. Dismissed." The man decided to check the classroom and was relieved to find that the fog had fully reacted to the air in the room and any dangerous properties had worn off, he then went about picking up the equipment that was left out in the rush to evacuate the room and prepare for biology with the 9th graders.

"Good job Mal, evacuating the class on the first day!" Jay scoffed at her as they jogged back to their rooms to change.  
"Shut up Jay, it's not like you were really helpful back there." She spat back. They changed quickly and headed off to PE and art, both eager for the only classes that seemed the tiniest bit interesting.

Carlos jumped when the bell rang announcing the end of his programing class. He had been so focused on his work he didn't notice the time. He quickly saved his work and logged off to make his way across the school to the science wing. Carlos was one of the last students to enter the room so there weren't many spots left to sit. He just sat in the first seat he came to. Mr. Boyle turned around after putting away a tray of beakers, saw Carlos sitting in his class and secretly wondered if the universe hated him and prayed to the gods that this one had more common sense than the other two.

"Ok, class, this is a two person lab today, the person next to you is your partner for the term." Mr. Boyle's voice boomed over the class. Carlos looked next to him to see the pretty blue eyed girl looking back at him, she looked terrified.  
The girl took a breath, closed her eyes for a second, then looked back at Carlos, "Hi, I'm Jane."  
"Carlos." He mumbled back shyly.

Mr. Boyle started his lecture for the first part of class and then started passing out trays to each group of two. When Carlos looked into the he saw laying there the biggest frog he had ever seen. Dead. He looked up at Jane, panic written all over his face. "What are we supposed to do with this?" he whispered.

"Dissect it." Jane responded with a dour look.  
Carlos backed away from the frog shaking his head, "No, I can't."  
"Carlos, are you okay?" Jane asked concerned.  
"Carlos, sit down!" Mr. Boyle ordered from the table nearby.  
Someone else snickered "Cruella's kid should be an expert at this."  
Several other students made off colored comments about the situation as Carlos continued to back away shaking his head. When he finally felt the door he burst through it and ran down the hall. He really had no idea where he was going as he blindly ran, the only thing he could think of was getting as far away from that dead frog as he could. Carlos somehow ended up in one of the locker rooms that connected the school to the field house. He collapsed there, shaking, and put his arms over his head trying to get that frog out of his mind. It wasn't working.

"Well what do we have here?" a deep voice chuckled. Carlos glanced up to see a number of older boys staring down at him, the one that seemed to be their leader grabbed Carlos and pulled him to his feet, lifted him up easily and slammed him into the locker.  
"Lemme go" the younger boy struggled but he knew he was no match for a team of boys that looked Jays age or older.

"Look guys it's the lost puppy from the isle" Carlos' face flushed at the words, and he made a last attempt to break free. The boy holding him up laughed at the attempt and nodded towards a door nearby, and the others opened it up. It appeared to be the equipment closet "you don't belong here runt." The boy whispered in Carlos' ear before pushing him down, giving him a few kicks, and slamming the door shut.

Carlos scrambled to his feet and banged on the locked door "Hey! Let me out!" But soon he could hear that the boys had left and the light in the locker room that had been coming through the crack on the bottom of the door was turned off. Carlos was in the pitch black darkness of an unknown equipment closet, in a far off locker room on the other side of campus. He reached for his phone only to remember that it was in his bag, that he had failed to grab in his rush to get out of the science lab. There was nothing for him to do but wait. It certainly wasn't his first time locked in a closet. But this was Auradon, it was supposed to be different here. They said it was different. They promised! Carlos slid down to the floor and pulled his knees up to his chest, a sob escaping as he struggled to breathe properly.


	4. Whats Tourney

**Hello dear readers, Thanks for taking time to read. I'd love to know what you think so please leave a review or send me a PM.  
Thanks and Enjoy!**

Jay had changed after science into some shorts and t-shirt and headed to the field in back of the school where PE class was held in good weather, most of the class was already there.  
"You must be Jay." Said a man with an athletic build, "I'm Coach Jenkins. You can call me 'coach'. Grab some equipment. We're playing tourney today. You can be on the blue team."

"Tourney?" Jay asked. Coach stopped and looked at him surprised.  
"They don't have tourney on the isle do they, son?" Jay just shook his head. Coach took a couple minutes to explain the general concept. Jay grabbed the equipment he needed from the pile and joined the blue team.

The whistle blew and they were off, it didn't take Jay long to get the ball and start heading up the field towards the goal. A ball flew at him in the kill zone and he dodged it. Next a yellow defender tried to stop him but Jay plowed him over easily, followed by a second. He was almost at the goal and a little guy jumped in his path. Jay smirked he had already plowed over two defenders; this little shrimp shouldn't be a problem. He lowered his shoulder to take him out and the next thing Jay knew was he was on his back. The other player had managed to maneuver around him, trip him up, and get the ball. Jay sat up in shock as he watched the other player head down the field. His speed and agility were unmatched.

"Whoa, who is that guy?" He asked. Ben came over and chuckled and extended a hand to Jay to help him up.  
"That _guy_ is Lonnie." Jay looked over at Ben in surprise "Her mom is Mulan"  
Jay nodded as he absorbed this new information. "Say, Jay, you're pretty good, you should try out for the team."  
Jay thought about it, "Is Lonnie on the team too?"  
Ben chuckled "No, of course not."  
Jay looked over at her confused, "Why not, she's the best one out here."  
"Girls aren't allowed on the team." Ben said simply. Jay frowned, "Well that's stupid." and ran off to join the play. Ben just stood there contemplating what Jay had said.

Coach blew the whistle for everyone to head back in, the period was almost over. Jay headed back to his dorm room to change before Goodness Class. "Hey you're pretty good out there. " a voice called out, Jay spun around to see Lonnie coming over. "Thanks, you too." He smiled with his typical smirk at her as she headed to her dorm room. "I'm Jay"  
"Lonnie." She called over her shoulder and disappeared.

In the distance a bell rang signaling the end of the period. Fairy Godmother waited in the Goodness classroom for her students. She was not pleased. She had gotten two messages this morning from Mr. Willerstein about all 4 of the children being "disruptive" in class. And then Mr. Boyle had sent her an urgent message that his classroom needed to be evacuated because of Mal and Jay. The doors opened and Evie, Mal, and Jay walked in. They all looked happy after fashion design, art, and PE. Then they saw FG face and nervously took their seats.

"Where's Carlos?" FG asked. The three children looked at each other with worried expressions. Mal started to stand to go look for the youngest of her group. "Sit." FG ordered, "He might just be a few minutes behind, the science wing is the furthest away. Now then, I got quite an interesting message today from both Mr. Willerstein and Mr. Boyle. I'd like to hear from you all what happened."  
Mal, Evie, and Jay all started talking at once. FG raised her hand for silence, "one at a time…. Evie, what happened in History?"

Evie took a breath and started to explain what happened that morning. FG didn't look happy but she listened to the whole thing. "Yes well, I certainly can understand your point of view and frustration; however we have a very specific curriculum..."

"That happens to be wrong." Mal interrupted.

FG gave Mal a look daring the girl to interrupt her again. Mals eyes flashed green for a moment before she averted her gaze. "As I was saying the curriculum has been the approved Auradon curriculum and that is what Mr. Willerstein is using in his classes. You are free to disagree with it, just not vocally in his class. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am" the three mumbled unhappily.

"Now then… Jay, Mal, what happened in Science. Mr. Boyle said he had to evacuate the classroom." Just then there was a knock on the door, FG went to open it to find Jane standing there.  
"Jane, what are you doing here?" FG asked her daughter.  
"Carlos forgot his stuff in science." Jane lifted up Carlos' bag that she was holding. That got Jays attention, he knew something had to have happened for the boy to "forget" his bag.  
"Oh, my. " FG started, "You haven't seen him have you? He didn't show up for class."  
Jane shook her head, "Not since he ran out of science class."  
"Ran out?" Jay asked, walking closer. Jane froze and her eyes widened as she saw the older boy, swallowed and nodded her head.

"Y- yeah, he ran out about half way through class." She handed her surprised mother the bag and quickly left.

Jay took the bag from FG and looked in the small pocket; sure enough there was his phone "Well we can't call him to find out where he is." He stated showing the girls the phone.

Evie had already pulled out her mirror to find the boy.  
" _Mirror, mirror, …in my hand  
where does my friend Carlos stand_"

Because the equipment room Carlos was locked in was dark, all Evie could see was black in her mirror.  
Mal huffed in frustration. "Maybe he's somewhere dark?" She guessed. Evie nodded and zoomed out, but the locker room was dark too. She zoomed out further to see the door to the locker room. Then further out to see it was at the other end of school toward the field house. All three kids took off running. FG managed to stay surprisingly close considering she was wearing heels. The children found the locker room and quickly went in  
"Not so fast! You can't be in here." A man called out from the office next to the locker room as he spotted Mal and Evie trying to get into the boys locker room.  
"Our friend's in there." Mal responded quickly as they ducked past the man and ran in. Jay flipped on the light.  
"Carlos!" They called out, "CARLOS!"  
Jay spotted the door to the closet and tried to open it. A locked door was no match for the three VKs, Evie quickly pulled out a bobby pin from her hair and expertly picked the lock. The door banged open and they could see inside. Carlos, curled up in tiny ball in the back corner on a little nest of pinnies, he blinked at the sudden brightness.  
"What took you so long?" He asked with a little smirk, relieved that they had found him.  
"Next time keep your phone in your pocket." Jay countered tossing the boy his cell.

"Carlos, are you alright?" Fairy Godmother rushed in to help the boy up. He nodded

"Yeah, I'm ok."

Mal was furious, "This is why we need to have the same classes, it's not safe!" She started to rant.

"MAL!" Fairy Godmother raised her voice to get the girls attention, "If Carlos had been where he was supposed to be, _in class,_ " here she paused to give Carlos a disappointed look causing the boy to find his shoes exceedingly interesting, "then this wouldn't have happened."

"I DON'T CARE," Mal shouted back "we need to be together, this is all so fucked up."  
"I'll ask you to remember who you're speaking to, young lady." FG responded with such an austere tone and glare that Mal immediately shut her mouth. She glared back at FG with her glowing green eyes, but FG had magic of her own and not only was completely unaffected by Mal's glare, she merely had to lift her eye brow in silent warning for Mal to back down. Not even Maleficent had been able to "win" their power struggles so effortlessly.

"Now then" FG continued, " you three, I believe you have free time till dinner, may I suggest starting in on homework, I'm sure you have a bit to catch up on. Carlos, you come with me." She purposefully walked out of the locker room. The four children glanced at each other feeling completely adrift in what they were supposed to do. "CARLOS." FG called back to him. Carlos looked despondent as he scampered off to catch up.

Despite the Fairy Godmothers short stature (which was still taller than Carlos) she walked so fast that Carlos had to jog to keep up with her. She led him back to her office and gestured towards one of the chairs. The boy sat down and fidgeted with the dog tail he wore hanging from his belt.  
"Carlos, " FG said gently, " can you describe who did this?"  
Carlos gave it his best effort, which admittedly wasn't very helpful, the whole ordeal happened so fast, he didn't know anyone, and had been completely lost and panicked when the older boys had found him.  
He couldn't even say how many there were, he thought 5 but it could have been 6 or even 7 of them.

FG pressed her lips together and nodded as he spoke. When he was done, she asked the question he was dreading, "And why were you in the locker room across campus when you were supposed to be in science class?"

That awful dead frog flashed in his mind again, he had almost forgotten about it, he tried to speak but no words came out, he couldn't explain it, he kept his eye averted and just shook his head.

FG narrowed her eyes, "Carlos, you know you can't just run out of class, right?" the boy opened his mouth to speak, but shut it again just as fast and nodded.  
"I see, and can you explain what happened in Mr. Willerstein class this morning. I got a note saying you were being disruptive"

Carlos looked up at her, eyes wide in surprise. "I…. I wasn't" is all he could sputter out in defense.

FG nodded and explained the same thing she had to the other VKs about the curriculum.  
"Can I go now?" Carlos said bluntly after FG had finished explaining.  
She nodded and Carlos got up to leave, "Carlos," she called and he turned to look at her, "any more notes from your teachers about issues and you will be receiving detention." She promised.  
"Yes, ma'am." He whispered so softly that FG almost didn't hear him.

Carlos stood outside the door to his room; he didn't really want to go in. "Might as well get it over with" he told himself and opened the door. Jay, Mal, and Evie all looked at him. None of them said anything for a bit.  
"So are you going to tell us what happened?" Mal asked crossing her arms and looking at him.  
Carlos sat down on his bed and shrugged, "A bunch of assholes shoved me in the closet and locked me in."  
Evie came over and sat next to him and gently said "You know that's not what we mean. What happened in science to make you freak out and run off, and then end up on the other side of campus?"  
The dead frog flashed in his head again and Carlos shuttered. Evie put her arm around him and pulled him close. "Please" she whispered encouragingly, "we can't help if we don't know what happened."

After a bit gentler prodding from Evie, and a few setbacks from Mal getting frustrated and yelling, Carlos managed to explain what happened.  
"Alright, let's go get some dinner." Jay said "I'm getting used to this eating regularly thing, and I'm hungry."  
"You're always hungry" grumbled Mal, but she was already halfway out the door herself.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi and thanks for reading. If you read my story please leave me a review or PM.**

 **Trigger warnings: mild child abuse**

The next morning came with bright blue skies and birds chirping which of course resulted in Mal being perfectly miserable. Evie had been up for at least an hour getting ready while the rest of Auradon was just thankful that Mal took 2 minutes to brush her teeth. She was still full from dinner last night, some dish called "spaghetti" that all the children devoured. "Come on, Evie, hurry up." She tapped her foot impatiently.  
"I'm ready. Let's go." The girls found the boys already in the cafeteria stuffing their faces. Carlos was drinking some brown liquid.  
"What is that?" Mal asked making a face.  
"They called it coffee, but it's not like on the isle. It's bitter, but not too bad if you add a lot of cream and sugar."  
"You mean you added coffee to your cream and sugar." Jay teased, "Seriously you need to cool it with that or you'll just be a spazz and then crash." Carlos rolled his eyes and got more. He probably should have listened to Jay though.

Mal, Evie, and Jay walked into history class and took their normal seats to wait for Mr. Willerstein. The first thing he did as he walked into the class room was to glare at the three young villains. "Let's split up the dream team shall we. Jay take that seat up there, Evie, move over two rows." He ordered, Evie sighed and gathered up her belongings to switch seats with the girl he had indicated. Jay did the same, and Mal scowled at the man and his self-satisfied smirk. "Now then, let's begin." He drawled on about Princess Auroras living conditions growing up and how *gasp* horrible they were. Mal thought they sounded fairly luxurious. After all Aurora or Briar Rose as she was called then, didn't have to fight anyone for moldy food, or drink coffee made from dirt, she had a safe place to sleep for 16 years, and never once had to fear being beaten or being kicked out of the house at night where who knows what would happen. She didn't have to steal her dinner or turn tricks to get shoes that fit. Mal could feel her eyes glowing green as Mr. Willerstein continued to lecture and all the Auradon Kids made pathetic gasps of surprise in all the right places. Evie could see the conflict in Mal from where she sat, she wished she was right there next to her to grab her hand or help calm her down. When class was finally over Mal was out the door before the bell even finished ringing. The other two ran after her.

Carlos bounced he leg impatiently; four cups of coffee had been a really bad idea. When the bell finally rang and he gathered up his stuff Miss Daisy stopped him "How much of the reading did you get through yet?" She wanted to know. Carlos bit his lip and looked down, he had forgotten all about it. "None yet." He mumbled back sneaking a quick glance up, the disappointed look on her face made him flinch back slightly.

"Please work on catching up as quickly as possible. We have a test on this next week." Carlos nodded and hurried to make a pit stop before history. The halls were crowded and it was hard to move around, Carlos was glad to finally make it to the bathroom. He then heard some familiar voices; it was the older boys from yesterday. There was no way on earth Carlos was going to walk out of the stall now; he'd have to wait them out. He heard the bell and groaned, what was taking them so long. A few more minutes passed and the boys left and Carlos quickly rushed out to get to class.

He tried to walk in discretely and take his seat while Mr. Willerstein was writing on the board. "You're late, Mr. de Vil." Mr. Willerstein said without even turning around. Carlos sat down and looked at the board, Mr. Willerstein was writing an assignment down. Carlos quickly copied it down. "Class this is due end of next week. 5 pages about the government of Cinderellaberg… "Mr. Willerstein rattled on about specifics. When the teacher wasn't looking Carlos motioned to Jane next to him to get her attention, she looked over and he mouthed "Can you help me with this?" And was relieved when she smiled and nodded eagerly.

"Mr. de Vil," Carlos flinched and looked up, "Is there something you wanted to share with the whole class?" Carlos simply shook his head, no. Mr. Willerstein narrowed his eyes at the boy and gestured for him to come up front. Carlos swallowed, quickly glanced at Jane who looked as if she wanted to say something but didn't know what, and walked up front to where the man had pointed. "Turn around." And so Carlos did, for the first time seeing the whole class staring back at him, some had looks of pity or sympathy, others boredom, and a few snide smirks as if they were enjoying the show. Carlos felt apprehensive not knowing what would happen next. "Since you feel the need to disrupt my class twice now, kneel down, on both knees." Carlos looked up at the teacher confused. "I said kneel," Carlos carefully dropped down to his knees and rocked back to sit on his heels which was instinctively more comfortable. "No, don't sit back, stay upright. Hands behind your head." Carlos followed the instructions wondering what the heck this was all about. "Good, stay like that for the rest of the period." Mr. Willerstein said and went back to lecturing.

Carlos felt incredibly awkward kneeling down in front of the class like that feeling the looks of other students bore into him, which he immediately realized was the whole point. It only took a few minutes for his knees to hurt on the hard floor, it would have been bad enough with pants on, but he was wearing shorts which made it all the more painful. The remaining 50 minutes of class was agony. He tried to keep his eyes on the floor so he wouldn't see the looks of the other students. If he did glance up he usually caught Jane's eyes, she looked sad, and angry. Carlos flushed and looked back down, and tried to focus on the lecture to keep his mind off of his knees and the looks as the seconds ticked by. When the bell finally rang Carlos tried to get up, he found moving was a lot more difficult than he thought it would be now that he was allowed up. His knees were bright red and ached, his back was stiff and sore and his right arm had gone partially numb from being up behind his head. He winced slightly as he moved to get his things. Mr. Willerstein had a smug look on his face, as if he enjoyed it. _The bastard_ thought Carlos as he left for his next class.

Evie didn't know what was taking Carlos so long to get to class, the bell was going to ring any moment now and then he'd be late. She checked her makeup, a nervous habit she'd picked up over the years. "Mirror, where is Carlos" she whispered, and it showed the boy just down the hall, walking much slower than normal but she couldn't see anything wrong in the tiny mirror so she put it away. She was relieved when he managed to slide into his seat next to her just as the bell rang. This getting to class on time thing really was annoying, she thought. She half-heartedly listened to Mrs. Cartesian about some sort of coordinate system while she sketched out a dress. Mrs. Radcliffe, her fashion and sewing teacher, had given her a special notebook for her designs and swatches of fabric, and that was far more interesting.

"Evie." The girl glanced up in surprise, maybe she wasn't listening that well after all. "Put it away." The girl nodded and shoved the notebook back into her bag. On the isle the teachers never cared what she worked on, they didn't care if she showed up on time. Actually, they usually preferred it when students didn't show up at all. A teacher had never taken her aside to show her where things were in the classroom like Mrs. Radcliffe had done yesterday. Well there really had never been a need to. There were only a handful of books for each class, most were missing pages. Paper and pencils were hard to come by. The younger children had small slates that could be used over and over, but once you hit the upper grades the only reason anyone still went to school was to get away from their parents. And Evie felt even more lost than the others since her mother castle schooled her until just last year.

Evie ate quickly and pulled out her notebook at lunch. She had the most amazing idea for a dress. Mal, Jay, and Carlos just ignored her; there was no point in trying to talk to her when she was coming up with a concept design. When the bell finally rang Evie couldn't tell if she was excited to be going to her fashion/sewing class or disappointed because she hadn't finished sketching out her creation. She was the first in class and picked her seat, not too close to the front, but not in the back either. This and advanced chemistry were the only classes where she got to pick where she sat rather than follow Mal to the back of the room. She pulled out her notebook and continued to sketch till the room filled up. A girl with a light pink dress and brown hair glanced over her shoulder; she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. Evie saw the look briefly before the girl put on a super fake smile and tossed her hair,

"Hi, I'm Princess Audrey. You're Evie right?" If Mal were there she probably would have punched the girl in the nose.  
"Hi Audrey, yes, I'm Evie." The blue haired girl didn't really know what to think of the posh pink princess in front of her. The girl sat down and started babbling about classes and "Benny-Boo" which Evie guessed was Prince Ben, and dresses, and her big castle, and blah blah blah blah blah. Even Evie who normally loved that stuff was overwhelmed by the girls chatter.  
"Audrey, that's enough, class is starting." Mrs. Radcliffe came in and began showing slides of various designs then assigned them a project of designing, budgeting, and making a gown for the upcoming coronation. Evie was ecstatic. She wasn't sure about the budgeting part but Mrs. Radcliffe said she would be there to advise them and they could always visit during office hours after dinner. Audrey wrinkled her nose at the idea of wearing a "self-made" gown.

Jay headed into the library where his "Reading Comp" class was. He really wasn't sure what kind of class it was or why it was in the library. The librarian directed him to a corner with several tables and a few other students sitting there.  
"Hi Jay, so glad you could join us." Said a plump older woman "I'm Ms. Merryweather, welcome to Reading comprehension."  
"Reading comprehension? What's wrong with how I read?" Anger and embarrassment flashed in Jays face.  
"Oh nothing, it just that you seemed to need a little help with understanding what you're reading."  
"I don't need this, I can read" Jay turned sharply and walked out of the library.

One of the girls at the table said "Let me try talking to him." And Merryweather nodded.  
"Jay, hey Jay, wait up." She called as she ran after him. The Librarian gave her a nasty look as she ran by and pointed to the sign "Quiet Please – No Running"  
Jay turned at his name ready to deck who ever came after him. He was about to swing but stopped himself when he saw it was Lonnie. He looked at her confused.

"Jay, its nothing to be embarrassed about. Lots of us need help in one subject or other."  
"I know how to read" he said through clenched teeth.  
"I know, but this just teaches you how to break down what you're reading so that you understand it better. I need help understanding too."

Jay was shocked, "really?"  
Lonnie nodded, "Yeah, when I first came to Auradon I could barely speak English, let alone read it, now I still struggle to understand what I'm reading sometimes, but the class really helps. Come on, give it a try, I promise it's not so bad."  
Jay rubbed the back of his neck a little and thought about it. Reluctantly he nodded and followed Lonnie back to class and took the seat next to her.

Mr. Boyle decided todays science classes would all be lectures; he simply could not deal with any issues resulting in either one student panicking or the entire class being evacuated, again. Carlos was thrilled to just sit and take notes, well as thrilled as you could be taking notes in science class. Jane slid a small piece of paper towards him.  
 _-Want to work on that report after 6_ _th_ _period?_  
Carlos nodded and slid the paper back to her.  
 _-Where?  
-Library.  
_The boy looked at her confused; he had no idea where that was. Jane seemed to understand what he was thinking though.  
 _-I'll come get you after 6_ _th_ _period. You have class with my mom then right?  
_ Carlos nodded. FG was Jane's MOM?! That was so weird.

Mr. Boyle cleared his throat enough to get the children's attention; he raised his eyebrow at them, and continued with his lecture. Carlos glanced over at Jane before continuing to take notes.


	6. the tower

**Hello, if any of you have some ideas for a bit of mischief I'd love to hear them. Also, I love reviews, so please take a moment to leave one for me!**

 **Thank you and enjoy.**

The four VKs sat in silence in the large classroom for Goodness Class with Fairy Godmother. Fairy Godmother didn't look particularly friendly today and she just stood there looking at each of them in turn. "It's like she was reading our thoughts" Mal would later say. When FGs eyes landed on someone they immediately felt guilty and nervous and had no idea why. Except Carlos, Fairy Godmother had told him he'd get detention if there were any more issues in class, and there certainly had been this morning. He gulped and fidgeted with the dog tail and hoped that she hadn't gotten a note about the incident. He didn't know what detention meant in Auradon, he would rather not find out, but he knew you most definitely didn't want it on the isle.

"Ok class. Most students usually have a free period sometime in the day to catch up on work, but you all have a full schedule, so today I'm going to let you use the time to catch up on any work. I'm sure you all have a lot since you missed the first week of classes due to the testing. "

Mal and Evie pulled out their math homework and began to work on understanding it. Jay had been given some work sheets in Reading Comp to complete, and Carlos pulled out the book that Ms. Daisy had assigned, at least now he could tell her he started it. When the bell rang the others gathered up their stuff, Carlos took his time. "I've got a project to work on. I'll see you all at dinner."  
"What sort of project?" Mal asked skeptically.  
Carlos smiled, "Not that kind. It's an essay for history." She raised her eyebrows in surprise but said no more. Jane was already waiting for him at the door and the two headed off to the library.

"How are your knees?" Jane asked glancing down at them.  
The boy shrugged, "they're ok now, but they were pretty sore for a couple hours. I'm glad the red went away.  
"Jane? Is that sort of thing normal here?"  
Jane looked down, "not really. I mean obviously it's allowed but generally doesn't happen. Which is probably why it is still allowed.I mean, imagine what kind of uproar there would be if that happened to Chad Charming."  
"Great, lucky me" Carlos replied sarcastically as they found the books they needed and took a seat at one of the tables.

After a while of researching information on Cinderellaberg Carlos and Jane were fried. "Lets take a break." Jane suggested. Carlos didn't argue with that  
"So what do kids do around here when they're not doing homework?" Carlos asked.  
Jane frowned as she thought about it, "some do sports like Tourney or Cheerleading or Kung Fu. There are lots of clubs. And usually on the weekend there is always some big event going on."

Carlos didn't think that was too bad, "so what do you and your friends do?"  
Jane's expression became sad and Carlos wished he hadn't asked, but he wasn't sure why it made her sad, "I don't really have any friends." Carlos looked surprised and confused, how could someone as nice and pretty as Jane not have friends. "Come here I want to show you something." She said, eager to change the topic, they grabbed their things and Jane led Carlos through a maze of twists and turns, upstairs and down, and finally got to a room that lead to a staircase, they climbed up several flights of stairs to a small tower room, there wasn't much in there except some pillows and blankets and books. "This is my secret place, I come here when I'm sad, so you can't tell anyone about it, promise?" The boy nodded solemnly.

Carlos gaped at the view out of the window, it was the second tallest tower in the castle-school, and he could see the entire campus from here, the field house, Tourney field, stables, and the palace in the distance. "It's amazing!" Jane smiled. "What's in that other tower?" Carlos wanted to know.

Jane laughed, "That's for detention."

"You're kidding."

The girl giggled, "Nope. I hear that's part of the punishment, you have to climb all the way up there. Its like 10 floors. Archimedes is the detention supervisor."  
"What? The owl?" Carlos asked incredulously. Jane nodded again trying not to laugh.

"Detention starts at like 8pm and doesn't let out till at least 11, sometimes later, you have to sit there and listen to him lecture half the night and he stomps on your head if you fall asleep. So most of the time when you have detention you're so tired you fall asleep in class the next day and get more detention." Jane giggled and Carlos looked at her with disbelief "Well that's what I've heard anyway."

"Never had detention?" Jane shook her head in reply.  
"With my mom being the fairy godmother, there is … more pressure to not get in trouble. And I try to avoid it anyway."

Carlos was surprised but then nodded, her explanation made sense. "Trouble just follows me around." He said miserably.

Jane didn't respond, she had already noticed that no matter what the boy did someone always seemed angry with him. "Carlos?" she hesitated a bit, "what's it like on the isle?" The boy froze at the question and the memories flooding back "you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I was just curious. I'm sorry" Jane added.  
Carlos turned around and sat down on the floor, "No, it's ok, but what do you want to know?"

Jane chewed her lip, she knew better than to ask about Cruella. "What did you guys do when you're not in school?"  
The boy sat quiet for a moment thinking over the question and how best to answer it, "When I could get away from my mother we, the four of us, would run all over the town, usually trying to steal things or food. Get in fights with other kids over food or turf. We were the kids of the worst villains so we didn't get messed with too much, but still we had to hold our own if it came down to it." Carlos smiled remember something, "I had a tree house. Mother hated heights so she never went up there, and I could work on science projects up there."  
"I always wanted a tree house." Jane said, for lack of anything else to say.

The boy nodded, "yeah I could hide there for a little while, but Mother knew I'd have to come down eventually. Sometimes it was just better to come down sooner and get it over with, you know." He shuddered involuntarily and rubbed a few scars on his arms with a faraway look in his eyes.  
"Yeah." Jane said in a low voice, although she didn't really know. "Oh hey, it's almost time for dinner, we should head back."

Carlos blinked a few times and nodded, "Yeah dinner. I wonder what they're serving tonight."

"I hope they have pumpkin pie." Jane said. Carlos made a vomit face.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello my dear readers, This chapter deals with some more mature themes. As always I 'd love to hear what you think, so please leave a review or PM me.  
Ideas and suggestions for future chapters are always welcome**

 **Trigger warning - sexual assault**

Mal tossed and turned in her sleep, green eyes staring down into her soul. That's all she could see. And then water, lots of water all around, she knew taking a breath would cause her to suck in the water so she tried to hold her breath but she could only go so long. The girl gasped and air filled her lungs and she woke up drenched in sweat. What time was it? 3am? She looked over at Evie sleeping in the other bed. How could she sleep like that, didn't she ever have bad dreams?

Mal knew she'd never get back to sleep now so she pulled on some black jeans and a purple sweatshirt and decided to go for a walk. It was a strange concept to Mal, to walk around in the middle of the night and not have to worry about someone trying to do something. Not only that but in Auradon everyone was sound asleep. _Easy targets_ she thought. On the isle the early morning hours were the most dangerous, that's when most of the really bad stuff happened.

The hallways were dark and quiet and seemed to go on forever. Mal didn't really think about where she was walking, she just started to walk and found herself by the art studio. She tried the handle and to her surprise it was unlocked so she headed in and turned on the light. Walt, the art teacher, who refused to tell students his last name because he hated the formality of it, had shown her around, but there was so much she was completely overwhelmed. She ran her fingers along the various shelves of paints, saw the different size canvasses, looked at some of the unfinished student projects stored around the room. There were even pottery wheels and a kiln. Mal pulled out some pastels and began to draw, she loved the soft feel of the little square sticks of color and how effortlessly they blended together. She became so absorbed in her drawing that she didn't even realize that the sun was coming up or that the door had opened.

"You shouldn't be in here." Said a deep voice and Mal yelped and jumped off of her stool. She looked up to see a young man standing in the doorway. He had long brown hair and sharp features, and he looked like he could lift an ox.  
"Who are you?" she questioned as she quickly put the pastels back in the box and put it away.  
"That isn't your business." He said coolly. There was a look in his eye that made Mal feel uncomfortable, she'd seen that look before. Where had she seen that look? He took a few steps into the room and the door shut behind him automatically.

Mal felt a knot of panic in her gut. This didn't feel right, she scanned the area for an exit but they only door was the one behind him, and all the windows only opened at the top. _That has got to be a fire code violation._ She thought, and then chided herself for thinking about fire codes.  
"You're really pretty. Did you know that?" He was closer and a chill went down Mals spine. She tried to move with his steps so that she could keep the table between them. "Oh come now don't be rude, I gave you a complement." The girl hesitated for a second, not sure how to respond, but it was enough, he grabbed her wrist.  
"Let go of me." She screamed and tried to break free but he was so much bigger that it was impossible.

He pulled her closer and with his free hand touched her hair, Mal wanted to throw up, she had to get out of there NOW. He pulled her in even closer and ran his fingers down her face and neck. Mal felt frozen _THINK, DAMN IT_ she screamed to herself. She was close enough now to smell his nasty breath, it was now or never. Mal raised her knee into him and his grip on her wrist instantly loosened as he slumped forward, she elbowed him in the face, and ran. Mal didn't slow down as she plowed over two other students, or when her nose smelled the delicious foods coming from the kitchen. She only stopped when she burst into her dorm room, slammed the door shut, and collapsed to the floor crying.

"Mal?" Evie said as she came out of the bathroom "MAL! What happened, what is it?"

Mal could only get out a few words here and there between sobs but it was enough for Evie to piece it together. Evie put her arms around her friend and held her as she cried. "Evie.."  
"yeah Mal?"  
"I thought thinks like that didn't happen here. Auradon isn't supposed to be like the Isle."

Evie didn't respond for a moment, "That's what I thought too. Mal, I think we need to let Fairy Godmother know." Mal shook her head no, she didn't want to tell anyone. "Mal we need to, they need to make sure they can find this guy, and they can't do that if they're not aware."

Mal shook her head, she didn't want to talk to anyone about it, she just wanted to curl up in bed and not move. Her skin still crawled with the remanence of his touch and she shuttered involuntarily. She didn't want to have to explain to fairy godmother why she was in the art studio at 3am either. Especially with how strict she was with curfew.

Evie sighed as Mal climbed back into bed, at least it was Saturday, and if Mal wanted to stay in bed she could.

Jay knocked on Lonnies door, he smiled when she opened the door, "Hey, wanna go work out with me."  
Lonnie gave him a look as if she was confused by the invitation, but she wouldn't mind someone to work out with so she nodded and told Jay to give her a few minutes to change. They went outside to the track and started to warm up.

"Tourney try outs are this afternoon." Jay mentioned casually.

"I know." Lonnie said, she seemed a little sad at being reminded about the fact that try outs were today.

"You should try out, you're really good."

"Jay, they don't let girls play on the school team."

"How would they know if you pull your hair up and have helmet on… You could even wear one of my shirts, or one from Carlos, so they don't recognize its you." He said excitedly. "Come on, some rules are just dumb and need to be broken."

Lonnie looked at him, "why do you care if I try out or not?"

Jay shrugged, "If you don't want to its one thing, but being told you can't just cause you have different parts," she smacked his arm at that "well that's just dumb."

She nodded "Yeah, ok, lets do it. " They ran back to the dorms to find an extra shirt that would fit.

Jay opened the door to the room he and Carlos shared, the younger boy was playing a video game. "Tourney try outs are today."

"So?" Carlos replied  
"So… are you going to try out?" Jay asked impatiently.  
Carlos laughed "You want me to get killed? No way, that stuff is all you." Carlos noticed Lonnie standing in the doorway "Whos that?"  
Jay smiled, "This is Lonnie, she's going to try out for the team, so um awkward question." Carlos paused the game looking between the two older teens. "Can she borrow one of your shirts?" Carlos fell over laughing, "Come on, dude, she needs a guy's shirt so they won't know who she is."

Carlos was still laughing too hard to answer, Jay shoved him aside and opened his closet to find a shirt.  
"Not the red one," Carlos sputtered out between giggles "I only have the one."  
Jay rolled his eyes put the shirt back and grabbed a black one and tossed it to Lonnie. Try that on he gestured to the bathroom.

A moment later Lonnie came out "It fits!" She declared "Thanks Carlos!" She ruffled the younger boy's hair.

Coach Jenkins was determined to have a winning team this year so ran the boys (and Lonnie) hard. By the end of the three hour try outs he had a pretty good idea who he wanted on his team. He looked at his list and scratched his head, he had 20 names on his list and 21 boys on the field.  
"Boys lets bring it in!" he called and within a minute the whole group was in front of him. He walked through them looking at each of them till he came to a smaller boy next to Jay. "What was your name again?" before Lonnie could answer Jay did.  
"This is Ping". Lonnie rolled her eyes _Ping, really? That's the only name he could come up with._ But Coach Jenkins didn't seem to notice, clearly not having paid enough attention in history class back in his days at Auradon Prep. Coach nodded.

"Welcome to the team, Ping."


	8. Dude

**I was having some issues with updating. So if you got more than one notification, I'm sorry. Enjoy and remember to review please!**

Evie worked steadily on the gown she was making for her fashion design class. She had sketched up a fabulous design that she was just crazy about, got all her homework done on Saturday so she could spend most of the day Sunday in the design room piecing the parts together. She'd never had this much space to work or selection of fabrics to work with and was utilizing it as much as she could. On the isle fabric was difficult to come by, and clothes, particularly for children even more so. For the last 5 or 6 years she had made all the clothes for her, Mal, Jay, and Carlos, with the occasional exception of a t-shirt. She had taught herself how to make dye for various fabrics and leather, how to embroider and had a natural knack for what flattered different body types. But a gown, that was a dream she had since she was just a little girl but never thought she'd ever have the chance to make one. It would have been an obscene waste of material on the isle.

"Evie, its Sunday what are you doing in here?" Evie looked up startled to see Mrs. Radcliffe.

"Oh, well I … just wanted to get started on this project, and working with the fabric helps me to relax and think." Evie replied without really realizing that she had opened up so freely.

Mrs. Radcliffe had the good sense not to prod about the comment just then. "Can I see your design?"

Evie handed her the sketch book and she flipped through the pages in awe. "Evie, these are amazing."

The girl blushed at the complement "they're not that good"  
"Yes, they are. Do you have much experience with sewing too?"  
"I make most of my own clothes, and for the others too." She said as if that was no big deal for a 16 year old. She didn't notice as Mrs. Radcliffe stared at her with her mouth agape.  
The women was about to leave as she noticed Evie had gotten quitter and thought she'd leave the girl to her thoughts when Evie suddenly spoke up. "What do you do if something bad happens to someone, but they don't want anyone to know that is happened?" The girl looked up, her eyes filled with worry.

Mrs. Radcliffe just looked at the girl carefully. That was certainly unexpected. "Well, I suppose I would try to encourage them to come forward to someone that could help the situation."  
Evie looked relieved at that and whispered her thanks before focusing back on the dress.  
"Don't stay in here too long, try to go out and enjoy the weekend, its beautiful out. Oh and lock the door when you leave, please. I'm not sure how you got in in the first place, I was sure I locked the door on Friday"  
Evie nodded. It had been several hours and going outside seemed like a good idea. After a bit she carefully put her materials away, turned off the light, and locked the door. Time to get Mal out of their room for a bit.

"E, I don't want to go" Mal whined as Evie informed her they were going outside for some fresh air. "I hate fresh air. HATE IT"  
"Ok Madam Mim, don't forget your shoes" Evie teased. Mal grumbled but got dressed and was lacing up her combat boots when the boys burst in.  
"Uh, hello KNOCK!" Evie scolded.  
"Oh please like we haven't seen it before." Jay teased and Evie smacked him.  
"THAT was different. We're in Auradon now, and you knock."  
"Ok ok" Jay relented.  
"Come-on you guys ready? I hear they have a lake and stables" Carlos said with all the enthusiasm of a little kid. He was practically bouncing. It had been a really long week, especially for Carlos who had to deal most of it alone and was excited to just see the other three for more than meal time and classes.  
Mal clapped her hands and pointed to the door and headed out.

They decided to check out the stables first, none of kids had ever seen a horse in real life and were excited to.  
"I didn't think they'd be this big" said Evie as she fed an apple to one. Carlos giggled while one nuzzled him.

A small dog barked and bounded into the stables wagging his tail happily. Carlos screamed and took off running, thinking it was a game the little dog gave chase.  
Jay, Mal, and Evie all sighed and started to run after Carlos and the little dog. The view from the castle was pretty amusing as students looked out windows to see Carlos running as fast as he could chased by the little dog and then Jay, Mal, and Evie behind. Ben happened to see the sight and figured he should put a stop to it before someone got hurt. He stepped out of the castle and whistled, as expected the small dog quickly changed direction and ran right to him and he scooped him up in his arms. A bit less expected was Carlos reaction to the whistle; he froze and began to tremble before taking off again in as much of a panic as before.

"Just great, he had to whistle of all things" Mal muttered having seen the whole scene as she ran. Jay and Mal adjusted their path to try and intercept Carlos while Evie slowed as she got to Ben and the dog. She was never much of a runner.  
"What just happened?" asked Ben, confused.  
"You whistled."  
"Yeah, to call Dude here. Looked like Carlos is scared of him."  
"That would be an understatement." Huffed Evie, who was still trying to catch her breath and watching Jay and Mal try to chase down Carlos who was faster than they were. "Ben, I suppose I should explain, about Carlos. " Evie bit her lip, contemplating the best way to start. "His mom.."

"Cruella." Ben interjected and Evie nodded.  
"Yeah, she treated Carlos like little more than a dog. She'd whistle for him if she wanted him to come home, or wanted him to come to her for whatever reason. And it was never anything good."  
Ben had a look of understanding. "She also taught him to be afraid of dogs." She looked out over the grounds to where Jay and Mal had finally managed to catch up with Carlos and were attempting to calm him down. Evie didn't realize how tense she was until she saw Carlos walking back with Jay and Mal.

Carlos froze when he saw Ben holding the little dog. "Wh-why are you holding t-the-that monster?" He squeaked out the only reason he wasn't running away again is that Jay had a firm hold on him.

Ben smiled, "Carlos, this is Dude, he's the campus mutt. And he wouldn't hurt a fly. Would you like to meet him?"  
Carlos just stared at the dog and occasionally glanced at Ben like the young prince had lost his mind.  
"I promise he won't hurt you." Ben took a cautious step closer, Carlos flinched back like he wanted to run again but Jay's grasp on his arm tightened when he did. The older boy did not feel like chasing him down again and so was not about to let go. Ben took a few more slow steps forward and Carlos shut his eyes tight, he just knew this dog was going to rip out his throat. Ben took the boys hand and explained that Dude was just going to smell it, that's how dogs learned who you were. The smaller boy trembled but bravely allowed the little dog to smell his hand. Ben took Carlos' hand and moved it over to pet the small dog.  
"He doesn't look like a killer." Carlos commented as he bravely pet the dog all on his own.  
"That's because he's not. He likes it if you scratch his ears or rub his belly. Do you want to hold him?" Ben asked, Carlos agreed and Ben put the little dog in his arms. Mal, Jay, and Evie would not have believed it if they hadn't seen it themselves.

Monday arrived with all the promise that Mondays usually bring, five long days of classes, more homework, the promise of tests and teachers, and for Jay, tourney practice. Jay groaned as the sunlight hit his face and he turned over to put his head under the pillow. Dude jumped up and began licking the boy's face. The little dog had taken such a liking to Carlos yesterday that he hadn't wanted to leave, even when Ben tried to take him back so Ben let him stay with Jay and Carlos.

Jay pushed the small dog aside gently; dog kisses were not his thing. He rolled over again to see that Carlos wasn't in bed; he was off in the corner messing with some project of his. "How long you been up?" He asked with a yawn.  
"I donno, little more than an hour."  
Jay rolled his eyes and fell back to his pillow, how on earth did that kid get up so early. Then of course being the grade below him Carlos had an earlier curfew of 9pm while the 10th and 11th grade students had till 10pm (seniors got till 11pm). Carlos had complained adamantly against having an earlier curfew than the other three, but fairy godmother was unyielding on the topic. By the time Jay usually got back to the room for his curfew Carlos was usually sound asleep anyway. As much as Jay hated to admit it he thought maybe fairy godmother knew what she was talking about when it came to teenagers and how much sleep they really needed. Back on the isle there was no such thing as a curfew or bedtime, the middle of the night was usually the most active and people tended to go to bed around 4am and sleep till almost noon which probably explained why no one was ever on time for school, which was fine by the teachers because they too were usually late. Jay had noticed over just the last two weeks that going to bed at a reasonable hour helped him feel more focused and less irritable, so although he didn't like getting up in the morning still, and complained loudly about such an early curfew time, he didn't really mind that much.  
He got up and ready for the day, and headed down to the cafeteria with Carlos and the girls. "No coffee today" he told the younger boy who rolled his eyes at him. Jay grabbed him and put him in a headlock until the smaller boy agreed to stick with milk or juice. Dude followed the VKs and hopped up on the chair next to them at breakfast where he helped himself to some of Carlos' eggs.

Then Dude followed Carlos to English class. Miss Daisy raised her eyebrow, but didn't say anything; so long as the little dog didn't cause any issues she didn't mind. History of course was another matter entirely. Carlos sat at his desk taking notes while Dude was at his feet and Mr. Willerstein hadn't noticed the dog walk in, but about 15 minutes into class Mr. Willerstein started calling on students to answer questions. When he berated Carlos for the second time that morning the little dog growled at the man. Surprised, Mr. Willerstein looked down the aisle and saw the dog.

"Dude, out." He ordered and the little mutt obediently left the room. "Carlos, up here." The boy groaned but obeyed. Mr. Willerstein handed him some chalk and directed him to a side chalk board.

"Write 'I will not bring dogs to class.' One hundred times. You're not to leave till it's finished." Mr. Willerstein ordered and followed it up with a cuff upside the boys head.  
Carlos rubbed his head and got started with his task; by the time the bell rang he was only about 70 lines in. He'd be late for math now too.

Evie was sitting alone in math again, Carlos' seat conspicuously empty. Evie pulled out her mirror and asked it where Carlos was, she saw the boy writing lines on the board in the history class room, she zoomed in to see what he was writing. "oh no, he did not!" she gasped. Mal looked over at her questioningly and she showed the girl the mirror. Mal slapped her forehead with her hand and shook her head, for a kid as smart as Carlos was sometimes the common sense stuff didn't seem to make the cut. "Seriously, who takes a dog to class with them" she groaned.

 **Please leave a review**

 **Thanks! BlueMoon007**


	9. The Sugar Bowl

**Hello again dear readers, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please leave me a review of what you think.**

 **Thank you so much for all the likes and follows.**

"Jay, I don't know about this." Lonnie said from behind the bleachers, tourney practice was about to start and she was worried about being found out.

"It'll be fine. " Jay promised, but after realizing that all the guys usually changed in the locker room he wasn't so sure how long he and Lonnie could pull this off.

"Hey, you two making out or you gonna come practice." Chad called as he ran by. Lonnie blushed and Jay thought their cover had been blown already until he realized that Chad was just teasing. Lonnie still looked skeptical but followed Jay onto the field.

* 2 hours later*

"Hey Jay, Ping, wait up." Lonnie and Jay turned to see a few of the seniors on the team approaching. Jay automatically felt apprehensive and he could sense Lonnie tensing besides him. "Good practice out there guys." One of the older boys said. "So anyway we have a little… uh tradition, for newbies to the team."

Jay and Lonnie exchanged anxious glances but didn't say anything. "Met us by the front doors at midnight…"

"But that's after curfew." Lonnie interrupted.

"Yeah… and if you want to be part of this team. _Really_ be part of the team, you'll be there. Or else." The older boy and those behind him bore down on Jay and Lonnie menacingly before stalking off.

"Now what?" Lonnie asked nervously as she and Jay watched the team walk back to the locker room.

Jay shook his head. "I don't know." And they headed back to the dorms to shower and change.  
/

"Mal PLEASE" Jay begged. The girl huffed and eyed Lonnie.

"I'm not that good, what if I screw it up?" Mal argued back. Lonnie looked back and forth between the two villains not sure if this was a good idea. "What if I can't fix it again tomorrow?"

"You won't screw it up." Jay assured her.

"Ok fine come back after room checks and I'll do it, but if you get caught…"

"You had nothing to do with it." Jay agreed. "Come on, let's go eat, its dinner time."

Lonnie just looked at him with disbelief, "How can you eat at a time like this?" She was far too nervous to consider eating.

Mal scoffed, "He can always eat."

/

Jay waited as the minutes ticked by; Carlos was out cold and breathing softly in the next bed. The boy was cuddling Dude as if the dog were a teddy bear; Dude didn't seem to mind. A chime in the distance tolled the half hour mark… 11:30, go time. Jay slid out of his bed, still fully dressed, grabbed an extra beanie for Lonnie incase Mal's spell didn't work and slipped out of the room. He met Lonnie outside her room and they went to Mal and Evie's room, Mal opened the door right when they got there and pulled the pair in.

Fifteen minutes later Jay and Lonnie were making their way down to the main doors. "Do I look ok?" Lonnie asked uncertainly.

"You look great." Jay reassured her. She stopped and looked at him "I don't want to look great."

Jay chuckled "No, I mean you look like a guy. Mal did great."

Jay and Lonnie met the other guys from the team at the doors a moment later.

"Jay, Ping, guess you're not a couple of chickens after all. Let's go."

The team seniors and Jay and 'Ping' went out of the building and ran off into the darkness.

/

"The Museum of Cultural History" Jay read, "What are we doing here?"

"Ok, here's your task, go in find Merlin's sugar bowl and bring it back. Easy Peasy"

Jay and Lonnie looked at each other apprehension. "And what happens if we don't?"

"Then your time on the Tourney team will be very short and miserable" The ominous look was all Jay needed to be convinced that this wasn't really an option.  
He'd spent his whole life stealing for Jafar; he thought coming to Auradon would be different. Clearly it wasn't.

Lonnie nodded to him and they headed to the doors. "If we get caught they'll send you back." She whispered.

"Then we don't get caught" Jay retorted while picking the lock of the building.

As it turns out the sugar bowl wasn't really too difficult to find. After all, all the thing did was supply endless sugar, not like Fairy Godmothers wand, which Jay noticed was heavily guarded with a force field, alarms, lasers, and who knows what else.  
Jay and Lonnie got the bowl and headed back to the rest of the team. "Now what do we do with it?" He asked. Once it was discovered missing there would be a search for it and he knew that leaving it in anyone's dorm room would be a bad idea.

"Where do sugar bowls belong?" One of the boys chuckled.

"In the kitchen?" Lonnie answered uncertain if that's what they wanted to know.

"So put it in the kitchen." The boy winked at them, "Welcome to the team."

Jay and Lonnie exchanged glances. "I hope Carlos doesn't want sugar in his coffee tomorrow." He muttered as they headed back to school.

/

"Jay, wake up." Hissed Mal at the table the next morning.

The boy yawned "Sorry" he muttered, "guess I'm not used to staying up till 4 anymore."

"Yeah well you better start waking up, we have history next."

Lonnie stopped by their table to say hi, she looked exhausted too. "Thanks for your help Mal" she whispered.

Just then there was a commotion on the other end of the cafeteria. Students were yelling, some were laughing, there were even a few colorful choice words uttered. Lonnie and the VKs stood up to see what was happening, and there at the beverage table was a sugar bowl scooping spoon after spoon of sugar out into a cup that was already overflowing with sugar. It had already started falling to the floor and the little sugar bowl just kept going until there was a significant pile on the floor that was quickly growing in size.

Mal looked between Jay and Lonnie and grinned. "That's fucking fantastic." She whispered to them.

Fairy Godmother came rushing in to assess the situation. "Oh goodness." She squeaked. "WHEN!" she yelled at the little bowl who stopped abruptly. She turned and looked over the student body in the cafeteria with a glare that managed to make every student wish they were somewhere else. "I would highly recommend that the person, or persons, responsible for this prank confess because the consequences for when you are discovered, and you will be, will be much more severe. My office is open for anyone willing to come forward. Do I make myself clear?" The silence in the room was deafening. "I said, do I make myself clear?" Her voice was low, stern, and it sent a chill down Jay's spine that rivaled the one he got from Jafar just before his father would punish him.

"Yes, Fairy Godmother." The students in the room murmured; all of them having that sense of foreboding even though most were completely innocent. Fairy Godmother scanned over the room again before walking out. A security guard with the sugar bowl followed close behind.

Lonnie's eyes twinkled mischievously, "That was so worth it."

/

Coach Jenkins looked at his team, he had gotten complaints from several teachers about some of the boys falling asleep in class today and he had suspicions that the sugar bowl incident that morning had something to do with it as well. He just didn't have proof. "Clearly my team is not getting enough rest if half of you are falling asleep in class, so I have decided to remedy that. Effective tonight and until I say otherwise, your new curfew is 9pm. That goes for everyone."

There were murmurs of dissent upon this new directive, coach ignored them and continued, "I've already let fairy godmother know so that she can adjust the room check schedule appropriately. And furthermore, that prank this morning with the sugar bowl, do not think those responsible will get away with it. So to ensure that you are all sufficiently tired for your new curfew time we're going to run some suicide sprints, and then you're going to run some more, and after that we'll finish off with more running. Let's go, hustle up boys." Coach blew his whistle. He had a good idea who was involved but with no way to prove it, he was going to make his whole team realize that they were in this together, and by that they were going to be very sore, together.

"Still worth it?" Jay asked Lonnie as he jogged next to her.  
She groaned and ran off to throw up, along with Ben, Chad, and a couple other guys already doubled over.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello again! Here's the next chapter for you. Please take a moment to write me a review and let me know what you think. I also could use some suggestions for some misadventures of our little group.**

 **There is also some abuse in this chapter, I think its pretty mild, but its there.**

Carlos had walked Jane back to her dorm room, they had just finished researching and working on their history report and it was almost 9pm, he knew he had to hurry to get back to his room in time. And then he heard her scream, Carlos turned back around and rushed into the girls room to find Jane screaming and beating someone with her bookbag. It took him a moment to process what was going on.

"Jane, stop, its ME!" the other person said, Carlos recognized it as Lonnie, but still under the spell so she'd looked like Ping. He grabbed Jane and covered her mouth so she couldn't scream any more.  
"Jane," Carlos started, "Its Lonnie."  
Jane mumbled something and shook her head eying Lonnie suspiciously. "Jane, if you promise to stop screaming, I'll let go." Carlos said, the girl nodded.  
"Who the bippity are you?" She spat out at Lonnie.  
"Jane, its me, Lonnie."  
"Oh yeah, then whats my favorite dessert."  
"Pumpkin pie."  
"Well everyone know that." Jane crossed her arms defiantly. Lonnie threw up her arms frustrated.  
"I made the tourney team, but everyone thinks I'm a boy named Ping, so I've been using a spell to change how I look for practice. Coach ran us really hard today and I fell asleep before I could go get the spell reversed." Jane sat down on her bed in shock trying to process this information.  
Carlos called Mal to head over. The purple haired girl came in and was able to put Lonnie back to normal in no time while Jane just stood there stunned. "Mal, can you teach me?" She asked.

Mal just looked at the younger girl and shrugged, "I guess so, you're part fairy too, might be easier if you knew how to do it rather than Lonnie trying to sneak over to my room all the time."

There was a knock on the door "Room check, dearies." And the door opened Mrs. Potts looked around the girls room, spotted Carlos sitting on the bed with the three girls. "You! Out!" she held the door open as Carlos gathered his stuff and gave him a swat as he walked past her then frowned at the three girls who were trying very unsuccessfully not to giggle.

"Where you been?" Jay asked as Carlos as the younger boy came in the room, "they already stopped by for room checks."  
"Great." Muttered Carlos. "I was with the girls, Lonnie forgot to take the spell off, and Jane saw her and freaked out." He looked at the older boy, "why are you here already? You still have another half hour. It's not like you to come back early."

"Not anymore. Coach changed the whole teams curfew till 9 until further notice. I'm sure the sugar bowl incident this morning is just a coincidence." Jay smirked.

\

Carlos sat at his desk bouncing his leg nervously. He had completed his essay for history about Cinderellaberg and their government but he hadn't expected Mr. Willerstein to make people read them aloud. He knew it was only a matter of time till he was called on. It had been almost two weeks since he started "Auradon History 1" and each day seemed to be worse than the previous one.  
"Mr. de Vil" and there it was, the inevitable, "Let's hear what you'll enlighten us with today, shall we."

Carlos gulped; Mr. Willerstein had promised he wouldn't like what happened if he caused any more... "Disruptions" (aka disagreeing with Mr. Willerstein) . Mr. Willerstein motioned for Carlos to stand so the boy slowly rose from his desk; he glanced over at Jane who gave him an encouraging nod and reassuring smile. Carlos took a breath and began to read his essay. It was unconventional, yes, but he had put a lot of time into researching the information and Jane said she thought it was good but had voiced her concern over Mr. Willerstein's potential reaction. Now he wished he had listened to her more. Carlos focused on his paper as he read not looking up. If he had he might have noticed the shocked look on the faces of the rest of the students, or the murderous look on Mr. Willerstein's face. When he had finished he looked around quickly and sat down.

"Stay after class." Mr. Willerstein said through clenched teeth. Carlos groaned and put his forehead down on his desk. Nothing he could do in this class was right. The bell rang a few minutes later and Jane gave Carlos a sympathetic look and squeezed his hand for good luck. Carlos put his bag on his desk, folded his hands over it, leaned his chin on the bag, and waited as the rest of the class filed out of the room. He heard a soft click and looked up sharply to see that Mr. Willerstein had locked the door, a couple of kids from class had gathered around the door window to peek in and the teacher quickly pulled the blind on the door down so they couldn't see. Carlos' stomach clenched tightly.

"Carlos" he spoke gruffly, "come up here, to my desk."

Carlos did as he was told; the isle had taught him long ago that not obeying a teacher made matters much worse.

"I thought I told you to toe the line or there would be consequences."

"You told me to read it." Carlos argued back glancing up quickly but then averting his eyes again, that probably wasn't the best response he realized.

Mr. Willerstein narrowed his eyes at the boy "bend over the desk." He ordered.  
Carlos' eyes widened at the order, a look of confusion and fear took over "w-wh what?" he whispered too shocked to comply.

The man raised his eyebrows "do I really have to repeat myself?" he asked. Carlos placed his hands on the desk but this apparently wasn't what the man wanted so he quickly grabbed the boys arm and twisted it quickly behind him so that his chest collapsed onto the desk. He grunted at the sudden impact, thankful that at least his face hadn't been what broke the drop. The man held his arm securely behind him so that when he tried to struggle a shooting pain went up his arm, the boy stilled, realizing that he couldn't struggle away or stand back up. Mr. Willerstein was a lot stronger than he looked and he was now helpless. The man grabbed something from his desk; Carlos couldn't see what it was. Carlos trembled, he was too vulnerable and this brought back memories of Dragon Hall.

Carlos was brought out of his thoughts by a loud crack and pain as Mr. Willerstein had struck him with a paddle. Carlos gasped at the pain; on the isle he'd been beaten and burned by his mother, thrashed by teachers, beat-up and stabbed by anyone that could get their hands on him but this was different than any he had experienced on the isle, probably in part due to the surprise that this was even happening. How was this allowed here?! The next strike came before Carlos had fully recovered from the first and he felt his eyes water instantly. He wasn't going to cry, he wasn't! By the forth strike a few tears did manage to escape. By the next few Carlos didn't even try not to cry, it would have been pointless. His hope that Auradon being different, better, had diminished with each strike. He lost count as he was forced to take hit after hit. It took Carlos a moment to realize when it was over and that the man had let go of his arm. He winced as he pushed himself up off of the desk; his arm ached from being pulled behind him like it was.  
"I won't have any more issues from you, will I, Mr. de Vil?" He asked as he handed the boy a hall pass.

"No, sir. " Carlos mumbled as he picked up his stuff and gingerly walked out of the classroom. Walking to math seemed to take much longer as every step made him grimace. He stopped by the bathroom to make sure it didn't look like he'd been crying. His face wasn't red, thankfully, but his eyes were still wet. He checked out the damage to his backside. That was going to be one hell of a bruise. He sighed; he was already late for his next class. He entered the math class and handed the note to Mrs. Cartesian. She read it quickly, looked less than thrilled at his tardiness but said nothing as she nodded for him to take his seat. He winced as he carefully sat down next to Evie. She looked at him suspiciously.  
"What happened?" she whispered. Carlos just shook his head. "Come-on, something happened." She tried again.

"Nothing, alright." Snapped Carlos louder than he meant to and cringed when everyone looked at him.  
"Carlos?" Mrs. Cartesian said "anything you want to share with the class?"  
The boy shook his head. "Ok then well why don't you come up here and finish this problem for us." Carlos wasn't sure if he was being called on because he was the only one in the class that could do the problem or because he had caused yet another disruption. More than anything he wanted to say "no thanks" but thought that wouldn't go over well. He carefully stood, trying to mask the pain of moving as he made his way to the board and effortlessly finished the problem. Mrs. Cartesian smiled at him and thanked him. He turned around to head back to his seat. The entire class was staring in shock. Most of them because he had completed the problem so easily, some of them had a knowing look in their eyes, but Mal's eyes flashed dangerously green and Jay looked murderous. Carlos couldn't keep their gaze and looked back towards Evie who looked concerned.

Carlos walked back to his desk and eased himself into the chair. "What the hell happened?" Mal said much louder than Carlos wanted since now everyone was looking at them. He glared at her 'not now' he willed his eyes to say. "Carlos?" she growled wanting an immediate answer.  
"Shut up, Mal" he hissed back.  
"Ok everyone; we all know what happened, so eyes back up front." Mrs. Cartesian tried desperately to regain order.

"Like hell we know what happened!" Mal shouted and stood up.  
"Mal, detention, now sit down." Mrs. Cartesian ordered and the girl scowled but sat down and glared at Carlos.

Mal didn't say a word until the VKs got to their lunch table. "What happened, Carlos?"  
"I don't want to talk about it right now, okay, Mal." Carlos mumbled as he picked at his pizza. Mal glared at him but left it alone, for now. She'd get her answer later.

Mal didn't have to wait very long, an older boy came up to the table with a sneer on his face. "Heard the runt got his ass paddled today. Probably deserved it too." He scoffed.

Mal looked at Carlos who was fiddling with the dog tail "Wait… What?" She stood up confronting the older boy "Is that… is that actually a thing here?" She looked back down at Carlos who wasn't just as shocked as everyone else by this revelation so that could only mean the boy was likely telling the truth.  
Evie looked over at the Carlos with concern, "Carlos?" she gently put her hand on his shoulder. The boy looked up to see most of the cafeteria looking over at him. He grabbed his bag and ran out of the cafeteria.

Mal looked at the slamming doors then back to the older boy standing in front of them and let out a frustrated sigh. Evie got up "I'll go talk to him." And followed Carlos out the doors.  
"What's going on? Everything ok?" Ben came up with his dopey smile.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me?" Mal snapped. Ben looked at her confused. "No it's NOT ok. Tell me _Ben_ , is corporal punishment really allowed here in 'perfect' Auradon?"

Bens smile wavered for a moment before he recovered "Well, yeah, of course it's allowed, but it's very uncommon."  
Mal glared at him "Uncommon, unless you're a villain kid apparently." She stormed out of the cafeteria after Carlos and Evie with Jay close behind. Ben sighed looking like a lost little kid; he had no idea what to do now or what that was all about.

\

"Mal!" Evie ran up, "I can't find him. I've looked in my mirror but I still can't figure out where he is." Evie showed the purple haired girl the mirror, they could see Carlos curled up somewhere but the 'zoom out' magic didn't seem to be working. He could be in anyone of a thousand rooms.  
"Did you try calling him?" It was one of those questions you hate to ask because it's such an obvious thing but it's always surprising how many people don't think of it.

"Yes!" Evie replied, "He's not answering."  
Mal didn't often panic, but she felt ready to. The castle was so big and they hadn't been there long enough to know all the rooms yet. Mal paced back and forth trying to think. Why couldn't she think!  
"Back home when Carlos was upset, where did he go?" Mal asked more to herself than anything.  
Mal and Evie looked at each other "THE TREE HOUSE"  
"But Mal, we're not on the isle."  
"I know that." Mal snapped back in frustration.

\

Jane had seen Carlos leave the cafeteria, and then the others storm out after him. She hid in a doorway as she listened to the two older girls talk, more like yell actually. The tree house. Carlos had mentioned it when they were in her tower hide-a-way. Jane raced down the hall and through the secret passages, up and down the stairways to the door of 'her' tower. She hoped she was right about this and started up the stairs.

The door creaked open and Jane peeked in, "Carlos?" She whispered. She heard a small whimper from the corner and went over to the small bundle of blankets that seemed to be trembling ever so slightly. She placed her hand on his shoulder and he jerked at the touch, the girl gently pulled the blanket down from the boy's face, "Carlos? Look at me" her voice was firm but gentle and to her surprise the boy obeyed. He had been crying so Jane sat down next to him and pulled him towards her so he could lean his head on her shoulder. He sniffled a bit but it seemed like he was done crying.

"Things are supposed to be different here." His voice quivering, "Everyone said Auradon is different. But it's not." He sobbed once more trying to hold back more tears and shifted a little bit with a grimace.  
Jane held the boy for a bit longer, he really seemed to be getting the raw deal. "Carlos, your friends are worried about you. Maybe we should head back down stairs? Or at least call them and tell them you're ok." He nodded and handed her his phone. "We should go talk to my mom. I'll go with you." She offered but Carlos was quick to shake his head, no.  
"Adults only hear what they want to hear."  
Jane couldn't really argue that, he had a good point. "Ok um what's your password to unlock."  
"101"  
"of course it is" she laughed and unlocked the phone and sent a text to the other 3 VKs.

 _-Its Jane, I found Carlos, he's ok. I don't think he's ready to come out yet though. :-\_

 _-Mal: well he better hurry up. FG is spitting nails here that he disappeared and we all missed afternoon classes_

Jane looked at the time and moaned "Carlos, we missed all the afternoon classes. Moms gonna be so mad."

"Told you." Carlos teased. "Grown-ups are always mad."

About half way down the stairs Carlos stopped and looked at Jane quizzically "How come Evie couldn't find me with her mirror?" Jane stopped and looked at him with a guilty expression "The room has a spell on it, only the people that know about it can find it."

"Who put the spell…? YOU did?!" Carlos was impressed and more than a little surprised.  
"Remember, I'm half fairy."  
"But I thought magic was forbidden..."  
"Shhhh" Jane put her finger up to her lips, "they don't need to know about it. Besides Mal and Evie use it like every day."  
"Yeah but that's what people expect of us, we're villains."  
Jane rolled her eyes, "Come on lets go talk to my mom."  
Carlos sighed "Can't I just go back to my dorm and ignore it?" Knowing the answer already but still wanting to pout about it.

Jane looked at him with a serious expression, "You know how you said back on the isle it was sometimes better to just come out of the tree house and get it over with? It's the same here. If you wait, it's going to be so much worse."

"Yeah, but sometimes mom would get so drunk she would forget she was mad at me." Carlos grinned.  
Jane raised her eyebrow, "And that's where Auradon is different, my mom won't forget."

\

Fairy Godmother sat at her desk and listened as Jane, and Mal, and Evie, and Jay all try explaining what happened while Carlos sat quietly on the chair playing with his dog tail. He was very glad the chairs had cushions although he still grimaced whenever he moved slightly. When the other four were done talking Fairy Godmother looked over at Carlos, "is there anything you want to add?"  
Carlos shook his head "They got it all."

"I see, well in light of the … situation, I don't think further punishment will be necessary."  
"Punishment for what!?" Mal interrupted

"… For skipping 3 periods and causing a school wide search." FG looked at Mal

"Oh." The girl said softly

"Yes, 'oh'. In any case, Carlos, you have got to stop running off if something happens. This is the second time in two weeks where we've had to go looking for you. I'm afraid the next time I won't be able to let it go."  
"And what about Mr. Willerstein?" Mal jumped in again "you can't just let him do this."  
FG looked at the children with sympathy, "unfortunately the school board still allows the use of corporal punishment as deemed necessary by the teacher, unless a parent signs a form refusing it."

Carlos paled, like Cruella would care, she'd probably only be upset that they didn't beat him more.  
"So there is literally nothing we can do?!" Mal said, her eyes turning green with anger and frustration.  
"Well you could try to stay out of trouble in his class." FG said pointedly.

Carlos rolled his eyes; that was easier said than done.

FG gave him a look that quite clearly reprimanded him for rolling his eyes, "Well it's almost time for dinner. And Mal, I believe you have a detention to serve tonight according to Mrs. Cartesian. You may all go."


	11. detention

**Hello again! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please remember to leave a review!**

 **Thanks**

Mal took a breath as she neared the door to the detention tower, she pushed open the wooden door which creaked loudly and she began to ascend towards the top. It was a long hike which was all the more time to think, _I need a drink_ being the most common thought to pass through her mind. She hadn't had one since leaving the isle and she really wanted some. Finding a drink had been an issue in Auradon, she had learned that apparently there were age limits here. She huffed as she passed another floor on her way up the tower stairs. The isle had no short supply of drink. Sometimes wine made its way over on the barges but Medusa also had her still on the riverboat, and Gaston had his pub. No one cared if you were just a kid, as long as you could pay. With all the shit they dealt with on that hell hole, drinking was sometimes the only way to escape. Here Mal was in Auradon which, although not perfect, at least provided food, a place to sleep, and relative security, still she longed for a little reprieve; her dreams still took her back to the isle every night.  
"Ah, you must be Mal, please have a seat." A voice said as Mal entered the top room of the tower that had a little sign on the door that said "detention"

The girl looked around, confused; she couldn't see who was talking. The room appeared empty of life, although there were piles of books everywhere.  
"Who said that?" she asked.  
"Me, Archimedes." And a little owl hopped up on one of the stacks of books "Now then shall we get started?" And the bird began chattering away.

Mal just looked at the bird and shook her head THIS was detention? Boring yes, but not at all horrible. She found a place to sit and began to do some of her homework. As Archimedes rattled on she absentmindedly rubbed a scar on her upper arm. She had gotten that from the last time she had detention on the isle. With no entertainment of any kind the villains had devised their own, and they called it detention. Every week the kids that had been, selected, were thrown together in a ring to fight, last one standing was the winner. Sometimes they would pit one fighter against the other in special matches. Mal vs Uma tended to draw a crowd. Bets were cast on who might win.

The smell of dirt, blood, vomit, and alcohol still burned her nostrils as she stood in the ring looking at a child who couldn't have been more than 7 and held a doll tightly in her arms. Mal knew not to underestimate the girl, even 7 year olds on the isle could be lethal, but she just couldn't do it, she couldn't fight the child who looked up at her with obvious fear in her eyes. After what had felt like forever with the insults and jeers and even some objects thrown at her two huge henchmen had come into the ring, held her down, and pressed a red hot iron onto her arm as a punishment for not fighting. Burning flesh now took the place of all the other smells and screams filled her ears, later Mal had realized that it was her own screams. When she finally had crawled out of the ring to where her mother stood she struggled to her feet, why she bothered she didn't know, because as soon as she stood at looked at her mother Maleficent had slapped her so hard she fell over again.

"Pathetic. You are weak, Mal. You are an embarrassment. If you show up at my house tonight I will kill you myself." Maleficent hissed at her looking down at her daughter lying at her feet with utter contempt, and walked away.

"Mal, get up. You need to get up." Carlos had been there to pull her to safety and away from the men that saw easy opportunity in front of them although he too had paid dearly for it when Cruella had found out. His words kept repeating over and over as he started to tap her on the head.  
What's with all the books? Mal thought as she slowly woke up from her dream the incessant tapping on her head would not stop "You need to get up now" Finally Mal put her head up and the little owl perched there flitted to a different pile.

"Detention is over, you can go back to your dorm now" Archimedes said to her before going to the window and flying out.

Mal walked over to the window and watched as the owl flew across the grounds. She wasn't tired any more, not after that dream, she walked down the endless steps and found her way to the front doors that she carefully pushed open and made her way to the enchanted lake. It was peaceful there and she could relax.  
"Mind if I join you." Someone said and Mal almost jumped out of her skin, she hadn't heard anyone coming, she looked over to see a boy there.  
"Ben?"  
The boy chuckled and sat down next to her. "I saw you leave the school. I couldn't sleep either." He took a puff of something he was holding on to then held it out to Mal to take. She didn't hesitate. It wasn't a drink, but she could use a smoke. She smelled it cautiously first before taking a puff of her own. She paused for a moment before exhaling,

"That's good." She said handing it back.  
"There are certain benefits to being a prince." Ben smiled at her as he took another hit and passed it back. He leaned back on the tree that they were sitting under and looked across the lake. "So how do you like Auradon so far?" the young prince asked.

Mal exhaled again slowly, "Its ok. Eating regularly is nice. All the rules are annoying though."  
"Are there any rules on the isle?" Ben asked with a genuine curiosity.  
Mal looked out over the lake thoughtfully, "Don't get caught."  
Ben looked at her, "That's a rule everywhere."  
Mal laughed, "Yeah, I suppose it is, but on the isle we didn't have rules like 'be in your room by 10' or 'show up to class on time and do your homework' and no one cared what you did."

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a long time just passing the joint back and forth. Mal traced the scars on her arm without thinking about it and Ben just watched, he started to count them but there were too many. He noticed some were from cuts, others burns, one looked particularly large, it must have been excruciating he realized.  
"How'd you get this?" he asked before he could stop himself.  
Mal tensed for a moment, before looking at Bens face. "Detention on the isle is, shall we say, a bit different."

Ben looked a little confused by the answer but didn't want to press her on it. The two teens continued to talk for what must have been several hours. Mal asked Ben about what sort of stuff he had to do once he was king and what he had to do now. She was surprised by how full his schedule was and how very little time to himself he got. The pressures of always being in the public eye sounded daunting.

"We should head back" Ben eventually said as he realized how late (or early as the case may be) it was. He explained to Mal the best way to sneak back in without being caught and quickly headed back to where he needed to be too.


	12. what have I done?

Evie sat up reading her book, it was late, past 2am, but she wasn't tired, and Mal wasn't back yet. Evie wasn't about to go to sleep while Mal was who knows where. She wasn't really that worried, after all if Mal had managed 16 years on the Isle she'd be just fine in Auradon. Still she was pretty sure she heard that detention was usually over by 10, 11 at the latest.

There was a soft knock on the door; "Evie" said a quiet voice.

Evie closed her book, there was definitely not going to be any sleep for her tonight, "Come on in, Carlos."

The door opened slowly and Carlos cautiously came in looking sheepish, "Can I sleep here tonight?" he asked, his brown eyes looking even bigger in the dimly lit room.

Evie nodded and made room on her bed, "Nightmares again?" she asked as Carlos climbed in and snuggled up to her. He nodded and closed his eyes. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep especially with Evie holding him and stroking his hair. He looked so much younger when he slept. Evie was used to these night time visits from Carlos, Hell Hall and her castle on the isle were right next door, so on particularly rough nights she usually found Carlos climbing in her bedroom window. How he managed the climb she still hadn't figured out. The two of them shared a special bond; Jay and Mal were more the rough and tumble type while she and Carlos tended to shy back from a fight. Not that they wouldn't if they had to, but both generally found ways to avoid it while Mal and Jay sought it out. After the day's events though she was only surprised he hadn't come to her sooner.

It must have been several hours later when she heard Mal finally come in. Mal carefully closed the door and then realized Evie was still awake, she was about to speak when Evie put her finger up to her lips to signal her to be quiet. Mal glanced over and saw Carlos snuggled up sound asleep.

"Where were you? Its like 4am!" Evie whispered.

Mal shrugged, "I went for a walk, then ran into Ben and we talked." Mal said this as if it was as simple a thing as brushing your teeth in the morning.

Evies jaw dropped.

\

"You were out all night with Ben? PRINCE Ben?" Evie asked for the 10th time that day.

"Yes, E."  
"Like THE Prince Ben." She clarified again. Mal just shot her a look.  
"E, my head is pounding, I've already explained it, please stop." Mal asked in a nicer tone than normal. Evie raised an eyebrow surprised by Mal using the word 'please' and not something more colorful.

The girls were working in the library, Evie was working on some of her advanced chemistry homework and using her magic mirror to double check her work. She found trying to do the problem and then checking if she did it correctly, and correcting if needed, always helped her learn the process which is such a key part of chemistry.

Unfortunately, Mr. Deley, her teacher happened to be in the library that day and observed what she was doing. Worried that she would use the mirror to cheat on a test he confiscated the item, stating it really belonged in the museum anyway and would be turning it into Fairy Godmother.

As soon as Mr. Deley left Evie burst into tears, she quickly packed up her stuff and left without a further word.  
Mal sat there not sure if she should follow or not but decided against it

\

Evie ran down to the design studio, working with the fabrics and her designs would help calm her down. She couldn't believe Mr. Deley would take her stuff like that, not even asking what she was using it for or anything. She had made some great progress with her gown and Mrs. Radcliffe had been very impressed with both her design and technique. Evie got to her work station and pulled out the project but it was certainly not the way she had left it, someone had ruined it. It was clear that someone purposefully cut it up and even spilled some sort of juice on the fabric, it was unsalvageable, well mostly. Evie had the talent and experience of working with next to nothing to figure out a way, but that would be later, right now she was seeing red. First a teacher took her stuff, and now someone ruined her work.

If Evie had been raised in Auradon she probably would have thought to seek out Mrs. Radcliffe and show her the damaged dress. The teacher had seen the almost finished product and would have come to the conclusion that someone tampered with it. But Evie wasn't raised in Auradon, and in her limited experience with teachers and other adults, you didn't tell them anything if you could help it and you certainly didn't go to them for help. You handled things yourself or maybe with an ally or minions if you happened to have some.

There was a giggle in the doorway and Evie spun around to see Audrey and another girl standing there, both looking delighted at the Evie's distress. "Now your dress is trash, just. Like. You." Audrey said in a most unprincess like way.

This was probably the biggest mistake Audrey could have made, with the combination of losing her mothers mirror and the dress being ruined Evie was not in her normal calm state of mind, her normal avoid-a-fight response hidden beneath anger and hurt, she was still an Isle girl after all. Evie lunged at Audrey and punched her in the face.

The other girl screamed and this seemed to shock Evie back to reality as she realized what she had just done.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" the other girl yelled at her. "Audrey, let's get you to the nurse." The girls left and Evie crumbled to the floor and sobbed. They were sure to send her back now. What had gotten into her, that wasn't like her at all, Mal, yes, but not her. She grabbed the remains of the gown and clutched it to her dress and sobbed. She had ruined everything for herself in less than a minute.

 **So I'm not even sure I'm in love with this chapter. Help me out here, readers, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Please leave a review. And as always thank you so much for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello dear readers,**

 **Sorry this isn't an update. Although I am currently working on Chapter 13 and hope to have that up to you in a few days.**

 **I could really use some suggestions though, so if you could PM me or review with ideas that would be awesome.**

 **So what am I looking for? stupid stuff you or your friends did in high school. I'm looking for that stuff that as a teenager sounded like a really really great idea, until it turned out to be less than super when the adults found out.**

 **Thanks!**

 **Next update is coming soon.**


	14. the real Chapter 13

**disneyfananalyst thank you for the ideas, I had a nice little chuckle while reading that and it gave me a little inspiration for later on.**

FG and Mrs Radcliffe raced down the hall towards the last known place Evie had been seen, the fashion design room; they knew something must have happened for the normally kind girl to snap on Audrey like that. FG hoped the girl wasn't a runner like Carlos and was a relieved when they opened the door to the room and Evie was still there holding the remains of the dress to her as she sobbed.

"Evie!" Mrs. Radcliffe rushed to the girl and sat down next to her to comfort her. As much as she and FG wanted to know what happened, they knew they wouldn't get an answer until they could at least get her to stop crying a little bit. They didn't really need her to say much, she held up the dress towards Mrs. Radcliffe who looked at the ruined gown and gasped. "Evie, why didn't you come to me and tell me someone destroyed your gown?" the woman asked her.

Evie looked back at her as if such an idea had never occurred to her.

"Evie," FG said gently "That's what adults are for, to help."

"Oh." Was all the girl was able to manage and then explained what had happened.

"So, you don't know for sure if Audrey ruined your dress? You just think she did because she laughed?" Fairy Godmother asked, "Laughing over it wasn't very kind, but I can't punish her for it, and you have no proof that she did it."

Evies face reddened, she was furious with herself for believing they would do something, "so you're not going to do anything?!"

"Well I think one week detention will suffice, but if something happens again we'll have to suspend you." FG said after a moment.

"Wait!" Evie couldn't believe what she just heard, "I'M in trouble, I'm getting detention, and Audrey gets nothing?"

"Well you did punch her in the face. And we have no proof that she did anything other than laugh and say some mean things." Mrs Radcliffe tried to explain.

Evie put up her hand for her to stop talking and shook her head, this was the most unfair thing she could imagine. "And the dress? What about my grade?"

"I'll give you an extension and some extra fabric to fix it."

Evie just couldn't believe what she was hearing, she got up and walked out of the room as Mrs Radcliffe and Fairy Godmother called after her.

/

Carlos had finally finished his project he had been working on for the past several weeks, from the little hidden tower room he had seen the perfect spot to try it out, a little clearing about a half a mile from the school. He and Dude were there now to give it a test run. He hoped that he was far enough away from school that no one would hear the explosion.

Carlos carefully set everything up and made sure he was far enough away igniting the explosives. The blast knocked him and Dude back several feet. Well that was bigger than he thought it would be. Dude was terrified so Carlos scooped up the small dog and held him "I'm sorry Buddy, I didn't realize it would be so big, I guess the stuff available here is a lot stronger than on the isle. We better clean this up and get out of here before someone comes to investigate; someone was bound to have heard that."

Dude whined a bit as Carlos put him down and picked up the various debris around the clearing and then headed back up to the school. Dude had a lot of energy and happily jumped around Carlos and ran to and fro as the two played and made their way up to the main doors. Carlos was so busy paying attention to the small dog that he didn't notice the small crowd of people gathered on the steps until he was only a few feet away.

"Ahem" someone cleared their throat.

Carlos froze for a moment then spun around. The color drained out of his face when he saw Mr. Willerstein standing on the steps with his arms folded over his chest and a smug look on his face. Of all the teachers at Auradon Prep, why did it have to be him?

"I think we better go have a little chat with Fairy Godmother." Mr. Willerstein said as he grabbed Carlos' ear and lead him inside. The boy yelped and whined while the other students around giggled. "It's unfortunate that I don't have the authority to handle the situation myself because I assure you there would not be a repeat of this if I did."

"Lemme go" Carlos tried to break the man's grip but was unsuccessful until they reached Fairy Godmothers office.

Mr. Willerstein dragged Carlos into the front room but Fairy Godmother wasn't in her office. "Sit" Mr Willerstein ordered Carlos as he flung him towards a nearby chair finally letting go of the boy's ear. Carlos hunched forward in the chair grabbing his ear, he rocked forward and back on the chair making a whimpering-hissing sound. Mr. Willerstein looked down at the boy, why wouldn't he just sit still and be quiet the man thought.

"Can I help you?" a small voice said and Mr. Willerstein turned to see it was Jane, she was standing by the filing cabinet putting some papers away for her mother. Jane had seen them come in but Carlos had been in too much pain to notice anything and Mr. Willerstein too agitated. Trouble really did follow Carlos around, she thought wondering what happened this time. After witnessing, again, the teacher's treatment of the boy she grew furious. What did this teacher have against the boy who for the most part was quiet and sweet? Mal and Jay were both far louder and more obnoxious and even many of the Auradon kids were nasty brats, yet no teacher treated any of them the way Mr. Willerstein treated Carlos.

Mr. Willerstein studied the girl carefully, he didn't like the look in her eye, she was judging him and his methods, but she was Fairy Godmothers daughter so treading carefully around her was crucial. "Uh, yes, when will Fairy Godmother be back? There's been a … situation that needs addressing."

Jane narrowed her eyes slightly "She'll be back in a few minutes." Jane looked over at Carlos "Carlos, can I get you an ice pack?"

"He's fine" Mr. Willerstein answered for the boy who was still clearly anything but fine.

Jane opened her mouth to protest but the door burst open and Fairy Godmother and Mrs. Radcliffe walked in, both looking frazzled and deep in conversation before realizing they weren't alone in the office.

"Oh, hello Mr. Willerstein. Carlos?" Fairy Godmother glanced worriedly at the boy who still hadn't acknowledged anyone else in the room, "Oh dear."

"This is Carlos? Cruella's boy right?" Mrs. Radcliffe asked and got an affirmative nod from the other woman.

"Mr. Willerstein, will you step into my back office and explain what this is about." Fairy Godmother opened the door to her private office.

"but the boy.." He started to protest.

"Is perfectly fine. Anita, you'll stay with him right?" the woman nodded, she was already kneeling down next to Carlos trying to talk to him. "right this way please." Fairy Godmother and Mr. Willerstein went into her office.

Jane rushed over with an ice pack as soon as the door had closed and Carlos pressed it to his ear which was a deep red. Carlos visibly relaxed now that he had some relief and Mr. Willerstein was no longer in the room.

"What happened?" Mrs. Radcliffe asked.

"I.. I.. I was just working on a project, and it didn't go exactly as planned, and when I came back to the school _he_ was there and dragged me all the way over here." Carlos mumbled.

Mrs. Radcliffe narrowed her eyes a bit, there had to be more than that. "What sort of project?"

Carlos just shook his head.

"Carlos" Fairy Godmother called from the doorway, "please come in here. Mr. Willerstein you may go thank you."

The man started to protest but Fairy Godmother's expression told him that she had made up her mind. He walked out of the room glowering the whole way.

Carlos stood up nervously and handed back the ice pack to Jane, his ear was numb now anyway. He warily walked into the office and sat down on one of the chairs. Fairy Godmother sat in the chair next to him which was surprising. "What happened, Carlos?"

So Carlos took a breath and told her what happened. He didn't bother to look up; he knew there would be a displeased look on her face. All the grownups always had that look.

"Did you know that those types of… experiments aren't allowed here?" The woman asked him.

Carlos shook his head; it had always been encouraged on the isle, the one thing Cruella even seemed to take pride in that her son could blow up half the market if he wanted to. Carlos bit his lip and kept his eyes down while he fiddled with his dog tail, he was trying not to cry, again, why was he always in trouble? His ear started to throb again but he ignored it.

Fairy Godmother sighed, she liked Carlos and knew he didn't mean any harm, but she was weary of having him in her office every week for one reason or other. "Carlos, I'm going to have to put you on restriction till Tuesday."

"What's that mean?" Carlos asked.

"It means you're to go to your room and stay there until then."

"What about meals?" the boy was suddenly concerned, he had some food stashed away but not a lot.

"Mrs. Potts will bring you your meals. And you'll be able to leave for classes as well. But if there are any further issues I'm going to have to reevaluate your punishment." Fairy Godmother pulled something out of her drawer and Carlos cringed for a moment thinking it was a cane or something else to inflict pain, "Let me see your hand." The woman ordered and Carlos held out his hand, it was shaking. "this won't hurt." Fairy Godmother reassured him when she saw how nervous he was. She placed the tip of the wand to his palm. There was a slight tingling sensation but nothing more.

"What is that?" Carlos asked curiously.

"Oh it's just a spare wand, it's not nearly as powerful as my own, still it has its uses. Sadly usually just for situations like this." Fairy Godmother made a few waves with the wand before stowing it safely back in her desk. "Jane" she called.

"Yeah, Mom?" Jane appeared at the doorway to the office.

"Would you please escort Carlos back to his dorm room?"

Jane nodded and Carlos stood to follow her out. The two walked in silence for a good portion of the way, neither really knowing what to say.

"You weren't kidding." Jane finally said. Carlos looked back at her confused. "About trouble following you around."

Carlos gave a small smile and a bit of a chuckle. "Do you.. um… want to come in?" Carlos asked when they reached his room.

"I can't." Jane said and quickly added when she saw Carlos' face fall "the spell." Carlos still looked confused. "Watch" she put her hand up to the doorway and there was a bit of a shimmer, her hand wouldn't go through, it was as if she was pushing on a wall instead of a doorway. "Only Jay and teachers can go in and out of the room till your restriction is up." Jane gave Carlos a little peck on the cheek "You should go in now. It won't hurt."

Carlos nodded once and stepped into his room, there was a tingling feeling all over as he stepped through the doorway. Fairy Godmother had cast a barrier, similar to that on the isle, on the room. Carlos turned and put his hand up where he had just passed but found that his hand would stop as if there was a solid wall in front of him.  
Jane gave him a small wave goodbye before leaving. The realization that he was locked in for the next several days hit him as he stood in the empty room. Jay had tourney practice and it seemed like the rest of the school was all outside enjoying the beautiful Auradon weather. Carlos groaned and lay back on his bed, it could be worse by far and his ear still throbbed a bit, but it was still boring. Carlos was not used to being bored.

 **Thank you all for reading, please leave me a review and tell me what you think. Also, would love some ideas for little misadventures of our 4 friends.**


	15. Tourney

**Roxas Itsuka - I know what is up with that teacher? He's really got it out for Carlos.**

 **Gnome12345 - I guess we'll find out, they sure could use a few goodness classes themselves.**

 **FlatFox - personally I think Carlos got off easy, I'm pretty sure blowing stuff up on school property is a serious offence. He's lucky they didn't ship him back.**

Lonnie had just finished getting the transformation spell removed by Mal (after a few failed attempts by Jane) and the two girls headed out of the room to meet back up with Jay. They jogged down the hall at the same time Evie was coming from the other direction to find Carlos. Evie got to the doorway first, the door was open so Evie ran in, or at least tried to. The magic barrier on the room gently pushed her back out.

"What the…?" she said as Lonnie slowed to a walk.

Mal tried next only to have the same thing happen.

Jay came out into the hall to the three girls "why are you out here, come in."

Before Lonnie could say anything Jay grabbed her hand and tried to lead her into the room. Of course he got as far as the doorway before the barrier kept Lonnie out.

Lonnie giggled, "Carlos, what'd you do?"

All eyes fell on Carlos as he paused the game he was playing and came over towards the door looking sheepish.

"Come on, tell us, it must have been something good. FG doesn't dish this out unless it's really something, she hasn't even punished anyone for the sugar bowl incident and I'm pretty sure she knows who did that." Lonnie urged, her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Carlos, what's she talking about?" Mal asked with annoyance.

Carlos just looked at the floor guiltily. "I was just working on a project, and it, uh, got a bit out of hand." The boy glanced up at Mal then shifted to hide behind Jay even though he knew she couldn't get to him.

"You idiot! For a smart kid you sure are dumb!" the purple haired girl exploded. She tried once more to get into the room to get at the boy but the barrier firmly kept her out. "Ugh" she grunted in frustration. "What is this thing?" she placed her hand on it and saw the shimmer keeping her out of the room.

"Fairy Godmothers version of being grounded..." Carlos explained with a shrug. "It's not as bad as my moms, but it still sucks."

Jay looked between Carlos and the girls outside the door, "So you can't leave? And they can't come in? Then why can I?"

Lonnie jumped in to explain, "It's your room, you need to be able to get in and out."

Jay nodded his understanding, "And food?"

"Mrs. Potts will bring it to him. So what was this project?" Lonnie asked Carlos, still unsure what the boy did.

Mal laughed "He's a fuckin' pyro."

"Am not! I just like to blow things up." Carlos huffed and crossed his arms.

Lonnie's jaw dropped and Jay gave Carlos a mild brain duster. The smaller boy rubbed his head and glared at Jay.

"Anyway, its dinner time and Mrs. Potts isn't going to bring us all dinner so we better head down to the cafeteria." Lonnie said as she looked at the time, she gave Carlos a small wave and left.

Mal gave Carlos a glare that made him cringe before she left followed by Evie.

Jay rubbed the back of his neck before glancing at Carlos, "I'll come back early tonight, we can play some video games."

Carlos smiled at the offer, "thanks." he said as Jay headed off to dinner behind the girls.

/

"This is so frustrating" Jane whined as she tried again to transfigure Lonnie into her alter-ego Ping. She would manage to get the hair right but leave the feminine face or get her face to change and forget to get rid of her breasts.

Mal waved her hand restoring Lonnie back to herself, "It takes time, my mother taught me some stuff since I was a little kid, I know you can do this." Mal reassured the younger half fairy.

Lonnie looked at the clock "Guys, I have to get down there the game starts soon and if I'm late…"

Mal nodded "One more try, if she can't get it then I'll do it." She turned back to Jane, "Concentrate."

Jane closed her eyes and focused on what Ping looked like then cast the spell.

"You did it!" Mal exclaimed and gave Jane a hug.

Lonnie breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, see you at the game?"

"Wouldn't miss it!" Mal promised as she, Jane, and Evie headed out of the room after Lonnie.

"Come on, slowpoke." Jay called from down the hall "we're gonna be late."

Lonnie and Jay ran off to get to the field.

/

The game was absolutely spectacular, with Jay's strength and speed and Lonnie's maneuverability and quick reflexes the game started off with a quick goal for Auradon. About half way through the game though a loud rumble came in and the sky grew dark.

"Oh no!" Mal said "it wasn't supposed to rain!" She pulled out her spell book and flipped though it frantically.

"Mal, what's wrong?" asked Evie. Jane sat on the other side looking at the purple haired girl with concern at her sudden outburst.

"We didn't put a waterproof spell on the transfiguration spell." Mal explained.

Jane blanched. Evie's eye widened and then she started helping Mal look through the spell book.

The rain held off for a while, long enough for Lonnie to score two more goals, and then the heavens opened up and drenched every person at the game, even those with umbrellas and rain gear couldn't escape this storm. There was only a few minutes left of the game and since Auradon was up 3-0 the ref called the game. Everyone headed into the castle or their cars and within a minute the field stood empty.

/

The tourney team was ushered into the cafeteria, one of the few rooms without carpet for a quick team meeting before being sent off to change. Lonnie had no idea that the spell had washed off in the rain so she took off her helmet along with everyone else.

Coach Jenkins just stared at her. Chad made a face of disgust. Ben's jaw dropped open.

Lonnie looked at her teammates "Good game out there today, guys." She said, still having no idea that she didn't look like Ping.

"Lonnie?" Coach Jenkins asked.

Lonnie looked at Jay who had a panicked expression on his face. He had no idea what to say or do. Lonnie looked at her teammates again, looked down and noticed her chest was back to normal and her hair fell into her face.

"Surprise!" she said giving a little smile.

Coach Jenkins was quick to recover, "Um, Ok boys, and uh Lonnie, go back to your rooms and shower… with soap." He added that last bit while looking at a couple of the boys that were disinclined to use it without being told. "Lonnie… when you're done, we need to talk."

Lonnie looked sheepish but nodded her understanding.

/

"Why didn't you tell me that I could just take a shower to get back to normal?!" Lonnie yelled at Mal who sat on the bed in Lonnie and Jane's room.

"I didn't really think of it." Mal replied honestly.

Jay knocked on the door to the room and Jane let him in. "Well? What did Coach say?"

Lonnie took a breath, "He's more upset that I didn't just come talk to him about trying out for the team so I got a 6 game suspension and I'll be running at practice rather than running plays for the next two weeks. But at least I'm still on the team! I think he likes winning too much to kick me off."

Jay chuckled; Lonnie was the best player on the team. "So everything is ok then, in the end?"

"Yeah, I mean FG was less than thrilled, but at least I have Evie to hang out with in detention all week." Lonnie shrugged.

Evie hissed "Lonnie." She hadn't told the others of her run in with Audrey yet.

Mal raised her hand "Wait… Evie? Detention?" Mal couldn't believe it then started laughing, "Congratulations Jay, you're officially the last one of us that got in trouble." She fell to the floor and banged her fists on the ground in laughter.

Jay turned a light pink color as he looked down "Shut up, Mal."

 **So I'm not sure what I think of this chapter, I'm certainly not in love with it, but it is what it is.**

 **Please leave some reviews!**


	16. New homes

"Now children," Fairy Godmother began during remedial goodness the following week "you've been here for several weeks now and have come along way, we've all had our ups and downs but I'd like to know how you all are feeling and if there are any issues."

The VKs glanced at each other, none of them felt like bringing up anything whether they had an issue or not. Fairy Godmother, sensing their hesitation, decided to be a little more direct about it. "Carlos?" The boy panicked momentarily at his name being called, "Has everything been ok with Mr. Willerstein?"

Carlos snorted "Just ducky."

Jay, sitting next to Carlos, chuckled "Got put in the corner again did you?"

Carlos glared at Jay, how the older boy found out everything he had no idea, he certainly hadn't told him, "Shut up." he hissed at him and smacked the older boys arm. Carlos quickly realized his mistake as Jay retaliated by giving Carlos a quick shove which threw the younger boy off the chair and landed in the aisle with a thud. Mal and Evie burst out in laughter while Jay just smirked. Fairy Godmother sighed to herself, clasped her hands in front of her and waited for the children to settle down again and for Carlos to climb back in his seat.

"What's been going on?"

"He hates me." Carlos said with a bit of whine.

"Oh I'm sure that's not true." Fairy Godmother said.

"No really, he does." Mal backed up Carlos.

Fairy Godmother pursed her lips, "Well why don't you tell me what's been going on then."

Carlos sighed, she wasn't going to let this go. "Well he calls on me excessively, if I answer honestly, even with facts from the books I find in the library, he keeps me after class."

Evie interrupted "He did that again?!" knowing what that implied.

Carlos reddened "It wasn't as bad, but yeah, a couple times" He kept his head down and fiddled with the dog tail. The others just looked at him in shock. "But if I don't answer at all or say I don't know, then he gets mad makes me stand in the corner. It would just be easier if he just moved the desk there and left me alone."

Fairy Godmother narrowed her eyes a bit, she didn't like what she was hearing, "Why don't you give the answer he's looking for?" she asked simply.

"Well I try, but even if I give him that answer he keeps asking questions till eventually I get one wrong or don't know. But it's just me, he doesn't do it to anyone else. Jane and I even tried swapping papers and he still gave us the same grades he always does." Carlos blurted out.

Fairy Godmother looked shocked "You and Jane swapped homework?"

Carlos shrugged, "it was just an experiment, we both did the paper but put our names on each others, she still got a B+ and I got a D."

Fairy Godmothers expression softened a bit, "I see. Well please don't do that again, Jane certainly should have known better. But I will have a discussion with Mr. Willerstein on the issue."

Carlos wished he could ask her not to, he knew it would just make things worse.

The woman looked around to the others. "Anyone else having an issue?"

No one really was so Fairy Godmother continued "as you might have heard next Sunday is Family Day and the following week is a school break. Now normally students go home with their families for the week because the school is closed down and magically cleaned."

The four exchanged anxious glances, they really hoped that they weren't going to have to go back to the isle.

"Yes, well anyway, we have been looking into alternative arrangements for you. We have been looking for foster families for you all, of course if you choose to go back to the isle you will be allowed to. "

"We want to stay together." Mal said firmly.

"I know, we figured that you would, unfortunately we have been unable to find a family that is willing and able to take on four teenagers at this time." Fairy Godmother picked up four folders from her desk and began to pass them out "so we found each of you a family that was willing to take you in for school holidays and to act as a guardian for each of you until you are adults. We've put together a brief summary for each of you so you'll know who you'll be going with."

The kids weren't thrilled with being split up like this, but it had to be better than going back to the isle. Mal looked over the folder she was handed.

HRH Stefan and HRH Leah of Auradon

Residing in Auroria

Leah is a member of the Daughters of the Auradon Revolution.

photo attached

It wasn't much to go on, Mal looked at the next page to see the photo of a couple who appeared to be almost at retirement age, certainly old enough to be grandparents. The woman's hair was perfectly done, her makeup expertly applied, and she wore a smart pant suit that flattered her figure. She held herself in such a way that exuded confidence, poise, and superiority. This woman was not one to be trifled with. She sat in a high backed chair and the man that stood behind her looked stern and likely to adhere strictly to the social expectations of his class.

Mal thought she died a little inside, these two didn't look like they would be any fun and wouldn't tolerate even a hair out of place. The purple haired girl groaned and dropped her forehead to the desk.

Next to Mal, Evie sat looking over her file too

Snow White

Resides in Charmington

Owner of 7 Rooms B&B

photo attached

Evie paled realizing she would be staying with none other than SNOW WHITE her mother's former step-daughter. She wasn't sure if they were sisters or how this family tree worked. Evie turned the paper over to look at the picture of the princess who was still as beautiful as ever. She was standing in front of a cute little cottage that apparently was a Bed and Breakfast now. She had woodland creatures standing around her. Snow White looked kind and friendly and Evie, although apprehensive, didn't feel nearly as nervous as she thought she would.

Jay glanced at his folder and took a breath before opening it.

Aladdin and Jasmine

Son Aziz (age 16)

Reside in Little Agrabah, Auroria

Jasmine is Mayor of Little Agrabah and Aladdin owns 3 wishes travel agency.

Aziz currently attends Auradon Prep

photo attached

Jay knew Aziz from the tourney team, they didn't really talk much but he seemed cool enough. He flipped the paper over to see what looked like a normal young suburbian couple. Aladdin looked cocky and athletic and Jasmine looked a little self absorbed, it you could tell that from one photo. He wasn't sure what to make of the two. Jafar hated Aladdin and had been horrible to Jasmine, he wondered how much of what his dad had said was true. Aziz was decent enough though so he thought that was promising at least.

Carlos curiously opened up his file

Roger and Anita Radcliffe

Reside in Charmington Heights

Roger is a songwriter. Anita is the fashion and design teacher at Auradon Prep.

They own 2 dalmations currently.

photo attached

Carlos sat back dazed , he had met Mrs. Radcliffe a few weeks ago in Fairy Godmothers office. It wasn't exactly the best first impression considering he was dragged there by Willerstein to be punished, still she had seemed nice enough and Evie was crazy about her as a teacher. Carlos was a little nervous about the two dogs, he hoped he could bring Dude with him (the little dog was currently sitting at his feet and still followed him to all his classes - except history). The boy flipped over to the picture to see what Roger looked like, he was tall and skinny with a goofy smile and clothes that looked like he had adopted his grandfather's wardrobe which Carlos found odd considering Anita was so fashion forward.

Carlos noticed the locations where everyone lived. Mal and Jay were both in the province of Aurioria but two neighboring towns. He and Evie would be headed to the province Charmington. He wasn't sure where exactly Charmington Heights was but hoped it wasn't too far away from Evie.

Fairy Godmother watched the faces of the VKs as they absorbed this new information, she was a little worried about all of them, it had been impossible to find anyone willing to take them as a group or even in two. In fact, no one had stepped up to volunteer, she had to visit each of the four families and vouch for the kids herself. But she wasn't going to let the kids know that. Snow white was the easiest to convince. Anita was willing but Roger needed some convincing. Leah and Stefan were quick to agree which surprised Fairy godmother the most. And then there was Aladdin and Jasmine, Aladdin was agreeable but Jasmine took the longest to come around.

She just hoped and prayed that they behaved themselves because she didn't know what she was going to do with these four if their foster families changed their minds.

 **Thanks for reading. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought.**


	17. Carlos and the Radcliffes

**FlatFox - thanks for your support. I can't wait to hear what you think of this chapter.**

 **TheBrothersFurt - I hope you enjoy this little detour our VKs are taking.**

 **Danifan3000- nice? Um... I wouldn't say they're super nice, but they're not bad either... just human, and set in their ways and social status.**

 **Power214063 - honestly, I don't know yet.**

"Ok, Carlos, we need to get going." Anita had walked over to the group, the drive was over an hour and she didn't want to get home too late.

"Coming." Carlos answered and gave the others hugs goodbye as he picked up his bag and followed Anita to the car, Dude close on his heels.

Carlos hadn't left the Auradon Prep campus since since his first day, and that was just to come over from the isle, he sat quietly next to Anita and looked out the window at the passing scenes. Anita had tried several times to start up a conversation, but after a few minutes it fell into silence again and she eventually gave up. They drove by the main castle where the King, Queen, and Prince Ben lived. And then through the quaint village that Queen Belle had grown up in. Carlos thought all the little shops, boutiques, and eateries looked fascinating, having never been in a real store before. They drove south of Auradon City but Carlos could see the tall spires and a few sky rises that mixed old with new, it looked so formidable that he was glad they weren't going into the heart of the city, and then the endless countryside started there were orchards, fields, and an occasional little village.

"You make this drive every day?" asked Carlos eventually, it was no short commute.

Anita shook her head, "No, I have a room at the school I stay at sometimes, I'll come in monday morning, stay overnight and leave tuesday afternoon, for example; so it's not too bad."

Shortly after Anita pulled into a gravel driveway and Carlos' mouth dropped open there at the end was a huge old farm house with a wrap around porch. Anita pulled into the barn that had been turned into a garage and tucked the car keys into the visor. Carlos got out of the car, picked up Dude, and threw his bag over his shoulder as he looked around. The barn was huge and had a loft over part of it, half of it was converted into a garage. Carlos followed Anita out, there was an orchard on one side of the barn and he could see a large fenced in section of land for Pongo and Perdita to run. They entered the house by a side door which lead to what Anita called a "mud room" (Although Carlos didn't see any mud and he suspected that bringing some in would still be frowned on) that had the washer and dryer, then into a large kitchen. Carlos could see a dining room through one door and a pantry, another door led into a smaller hallway space that had stairs and a door to a back porch, beyond that looked like a study.

"Roger, we're home." Anita called out and a moment later Roger entered the kitchen, striding purposefully over to Anita and gave her a big hug and kiss.

Carlos looked away with a slight blush, he wasn't used to such public displays of affection, especially from adults, kids at school were always making out.

"Roger, I'd like you to meet Carlos. Carlos, this is my husband, Roger." Anita said once she and Roger seperated a bit.

"Nice to meet you, Carlos." Roger said holding out his hand to shake. Carlos shifted Dude and shook hands and then pulled back as he started to look up towards the tall man in front of him. It felt to Carlos as if the man's height just went on forever, although he was really just over 6 foot, Carlos shrunk back a bit when he finally met the man's eyes, he was smiling, but his eyes didn't smile the way Anitas did. The boy quickly dropped his eyes back to the floor and held Dude a little tighter. The small dog sensed his owners anxiety and started licking his face. Carlos smiled at the little dog in his arms and relaxed slightly.

"Carlos," Anita brought him back "your room is up the stairs, first door, why don't you go up and make yourself at home, it looks like dinner will be ready in about an hour."

Carlos nodded, grabbed his bag, and went out of the kitchen. He could hear Roger saying something to Anita that sounded like complaint about him but he decided he didn't want to hear and looked at the pictures in the hall as he made his way to the bottom of the stairs. There were a lot with dogs in them, a bunch of childhood photos and extended family that obviously Carlos wouldn't know, and then his heart stopped; a photo of Anita and none other than his mother at what must have been a play in high school perhaps. Carlos felt the blood rush out of his head and he felt a bit light headed, Dude whined in his arms and licked his face some more rousing the boy back, Carlos shook his head and ran upstairs shaking.

Once Carlos calmed down a bit he took a look around his room, the room was decorated in blues and greens with, for some reason, a nautical theme, it clearly was like that long before they had planned on having him stay. There was a stash of dog toys in a corner that Dude immediately ran to, a desk with a docking station for his laptop, and a bookcase with a variety of books. Carlos read over some of the titles, some science books, other biographies of notable figures in Auradonian history, and a bunch of fictional stories he had never heard of. Some were older books bound in leather with gold trim and beautiful illustrations, and some newer paperbacks. Carlos's room was on the corner of the house so he had windows on two sides of his room. The one looked over the orchard and barn and the other side looked towards the front of the house with a corn field as far as he could see. He was glad to see that the roof of the porch was right outside his window, he could climb out there if he just needed to get outside, or even an escape route if it came to that. He wandered down the hallway and found the bathroom, another room that looked like a guest room, a linen closet, and what he supposed was Roger and Anita's room.

Carlos went back into his bedroom and unpacked the few outfits he owned, he was surprised to see a few basics already in the dresser drawers, new packs of socks, underwear, and undershirts, as well as jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies (thankfully all in red, black or white) it wasn't his normal style but it was nice to see that they had put in the effort. Carlos sat on the bed holding Dude, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now, he was curious about the rest of the house and outside but didn't feel ready to explore just yet, something about Roger made him nervous and he would rather not cross him unexpected.

"Carlos! Dinner." Anita called from down stairs. Dude jumped into the boys arms and the two headed down to eat.

Carlos made his way back downstairs and found Anita and Roger in the dining room and a place set out for him, he put Dude down on the floor and sat down. It was incredibly uncomfortable, Carlos didn't know if he should serve himself, or wait for someone to say ok, he sat quietly looking down at the flowers on the plate as if they were very interesting until Anita told him he could serve himself and start. He noticed Roger giving his wife a look that clearly said "what a weird kid".

Anita tried to start a conversation again, Carlos dutifully answered the questions with as few words as possible. Roger then started in with his questions in a no-nonsense manner, Carlos did his best to answer but felt like he often did in Willerstein's class and eventually fell into silence only answering with yes, no, or a shrug. Roger sighed raised his eyebrows at Anita, and cleared his plate, muttering to himself.

"Um…" Carlos finally spoke up voluntarily, "what do I do with my plate?"

Anita smiled "follow me" she said and led him into the kitchen, showed him where the garbage was in case there was anything he didn't eat like the chicken bones on his plate, and how to put his plate in the dishwasher, she explained how they ran it at night and unloaded it each morning. Then showed him where the various dishes were and cereal for breakfast, "We only eat dinner in the dining room, usually breakfast and lunch are in here."

"You knew my mother." Carlos blurted out.

Anita froze and turned to look down at the boy, she wasn't a tall woman by any means and she even towered over him by at least half a foot, "We were friends, a long time ago."

Carlos mulled this over the idea of his mother ever having a friend, of ever not being an insanely crazy abusive alcoholic was such a foreign concept to Carlos or else maybe Anita was like his mother, although that didn't make sense either. He wasn't even sure what he thought of it.

"Carlos?" Anita said softly "I thought that you knew."

The boy just shook his head, he had never bothered to read his mother's story, he knew the basics, about how she had tried to steal 101 puppies to murder to make a stupid coat. But that was it, he never wanted to know more.

Anita noticed the confusion on Carlos' face, "If you'd like I can tell you about her, before all that bad stuff happened."

Carlos looked up at Anita, "No…. I mean… not yet, maybe someday." His throat felt like it was closing up and Dude padded over to him, the boy scooped up his little furry friend and cuddled him.

Anita nodded, "Ok then, when you're ready. Why don't you take Dude out" She suggested realizing the little dog hadn't been outside for hours. "Pongo and Perdita are in the fenced yard." Anita handed the boy some treats for all the dogs, "go say hello. They're very friendly and won't hurt you."

Carlos nodded. The dogs were behind a fence so he felt comfortable with saying hello, he put a leash on Dude. The little dog didn't normally run off, but this was an unknown area and he didn't want the little dog to run off in the excitement of a new place. Carlos and Dude headed out to say hello.

"Will he be okay out there?" Roger asked his wife as he watched out the window.

"Of course he will." Anita said giving her husband a quizzical look.

Roger wrapped his arms around his wife and sighed, "he's just so… odd."

Anita chuckled, "He wasn't raised in Auradon. I don't think he was really raised at all. I think the isle isn't like we imagine it to be. All of them are a bit... peculiar from what I can tell. He's still just a boy." she sighed slightly and then smiled as she watched Dude and Carlos run around the backyard together. She hoped their home would be good for him, "Give him time."

Roger kissed the side of his wife's head and nodded, she was right, he remembered how Cruella was just before she was sent away, he had no idea what she was like now, but couldn't imagine it would be any better and it was certainly not an environment suitable for children.

When the sun started to set Anita called Carlos and Dude back in, they all settled in the living room to watch jeopardy with Gyro Gearloose as the host. Carlos had never seen the show before, he and Jay usually watched movies or played video games, but it didn't take him long to get the idea and start shouting out answers along with Roger and Anita. Both of whom were impressed at how many he got right. After the Sunday night variety hour was on, which Carlos was surprised to find he didn't hate it, when that ended Roger turned off the TV and declared it time for bed.

Carlos got ready and snuggled in bed with Dude, Anita gently knocked on the door. "Can I come in?" she asked, Carlos nodded and the woman came in, "I just thought I'd tuck you in, if you don't mind." Anita said softly.

"I don't know what that is." Carlos said confused.

Anita pulled up the blankets and tucked them in around Carlos then sat on the edge of the bed and asked if he needed anything, she let him know they'd leave the bathroom light on.

The boy smiled up at her, "Oh thanks for the clothes, I saw them in the dresser"

"You're welcome, Carlos." the woman said as she moved the white curls out of his eyes and giving his forehead a quick kiss goodnight and left.

Carlos lay in the dark of his new room, Dude snuggled up close to him, and stared out the window across from his bed. Was that being tucked in? How weird, he didn't really understand the point, he'd put himself to bed since he could remember and he was sure Cruella had never done more than toss him in the closet and close the door. But he found he didn't mind it.

 **Thank you to everyone that reads my stories, please leave me a review, its definitely motivation to keep going and I love the feedback.**


	18. Be home for dinner & Evie and Snow

**narutogirl103 - he was bound to have a good day eventually right?!**

 **FlatFox - glad you like it! I wonder if he'll ever have a need for that escape route...**

 **Mirami02 - Mal and Ben are certainly not the perfect do-no-wrong teens in this story. They're gonna do stupid stuff. Did you have a favorite chapter?**

The next day Carlos was surprised to find Anita and Roger already up. Cruella had always been a late sleeper and Jay was anything but an early bird, Carlos wasn't used to having people be up and moving around in the morning before him, let alone down right chipper the way Anita was. He made his way to the kitchen where Anita offered him some breakfast.

"What are your plans for the day?" she asked him.

Carlos shrugged, he hadn't even thought about it.

"I don't want you playing on your laptop all day long while you're here, how about you and Dude go out and explore the property." she suggested "We own most of the land on this side of the street for miles. Just be home by 6."

Carlos thought it over. "Ok" he said, once he cleared up his breakfast he and Dude headed out. The orchards had peach and apple trees, there was a small vegetable garden he hadn't seen last night as well, he walked through until he got to a wooded area and decided to explore. The isle barely had any trees on the side that was inhabited, and the far side wasn't anyplace you went exploring. In Auradon, school had kept him too busy to go out into the woods very often and ever since his little experiment he hadn't been allowed to go off on his own anyway.

Carlos and Dude spent the day exploring and only when his stomach grumbled loudly did the boy stop to figure out what time it was. He looked at his watch and saw it was already 5, he'd have to hurry back.

"Dude, you're a mess." Carlos groaned looking down at his little companion who was completely covered in mud, the dog looked back at him as if to say "your not so clean yourself."

Carlos hadn't realized how far he had gone, and soon realized he wouldn't be home by 6 when he was supposed to be. _I'm so dead._ He thought as 7pm approached. Carlos began to get anxious when he realized he still wasn't near the house by 8pm. If there was one thing that was the same in Auradon and the isle it was that when an adult tells you to do something, you do it, or else. Carlos was practically shaking from fear by the time he got back to the house, he expected some kind of punishment, but how much would it hurt. He knew what to expect if he were back on the isle... lots of pain. But in Auradon he never knew what to expect, every adult handled things differently, and the anxiety of not knowing made him want to be sick. The boy opened the door and before he could stop him, Dude ran into the house, right through the kitchen and into the living room, hopping up on the sofa and lay his muddy paws and chin on Roger who was sitting there on his cell phone; a trail of muddy paw prints and splashes of mud was left in the dogs wake.

"Dude no! Come back!" Carlos called from the doorway, not daring to follow and make a bigger mess.

"Carlos!" Anita cried. "Roger he's back." Anita came over to Carlos, and stopped just short of giving him a hug, partly because he flinched back in fear of being hit (a reflex he hadn't quite lost yet from the isle) and partly because he was absolutely filthy. Anita was not one to mind dirt, she expected it and was one of those adults that thinks kids need to be outside getting dirty, she did not, however, expect Carlos and Dude to come home quite this dirty and over 2 hours late.

Carlos bit his lip as he watched Anita's expression change from worry to relief to disappointment. They were gonna call Fairy Godmother and tell her they didn't want him anymore and then what would happen to him. And if he had made a fraction of the mess at Hell Hall that Dude just made, he shuddered to think of the cruel punishment his mother would have handed out.

"Thank you officer, he just came home. He's ok." Roger said and hug up the phone, he picked up Dude and brought the muddy dog back to the kitchen and placed him in Carlos's arms, "go put Dude out in the yard with the others, he needs a bath before he's allowed in here."

Carlos brought Dude out back and cuddled him "It was nice knowing you buddy." Carlos reluctantly put Dude in the dog area and turned to face his doom. He sheepishly walked back into the house where Anita and Rogers initial expressions of worry and relief were replaced by disappointment and anger.

"6 o'clock, Carlos. 6! Not 8:30! We've been worried sick about you, we didn't know if you got hurt or lost. We even called the police."

"I… I didn't realize I went so far and it took longer to get back than I thought." Carlos explained. "I'm sorry." he added after the Radcliffes didn't say anything for a bit.

"Go shower and come down for some dinner." Anita told him and Carlos hurried off to do as he was told.

"If it were up to me he'd go to bed without dinner." muttered Roger.

"But Fairy Godmother said they.."

" 'food issues' yeah, yeah, I know." Roger interrupted "I'm going to get Dude and clean him up. He's too small to be outside all night and I'm not letting him back in here that filthy, I think he rolled in something." the man said as he headed outside.

It didn't take long before Carlos came back down after his shower, he wisely brought his dirty clothes along to throw in the wash. Anita set a warmed up plate of food down at the small table in the kitchen and Carlos sat silently to eat. Roger and a now clean Dude came in midway through his second plate. Carlos felt his anxiety rising at Roger's presence they fed him at least, but now what? He flinched every time Roger or Anita came closer expecting at the minimum a smack.

"Carlos…?" Anita sat down across from him concerned.

"Am… am I … I in tr-trouble?" Carlos asked nervously as Dude jumped up into his arms.

Anita sighed, "Well, its only your first day here, so no, not this time. But we really need you to understand that if we say be back by a certain time that's when you need to be back, no matter what. If you're not we'll think something bad happened. You need to pay more attention to how far you go and what time it is so that you can get back on time. Do you understand?"

Carlos nodded and then yawned.

"I think its bedtime." Anita said looking at the clock, "I'll come up in a bit to say good night."

"To tuck me in?" Carlos asked, still not sure how that whole thing worked and why Anita wanted to do it, but he liked it and found himself hoping she would.

She nodded "Yeah."

Carlos smiled.

/

It wasn't long after Carlos left Auradon Prep that Snow White came up to Evie to let her know it was also time to head out. Evie gave Mal and Jay hugs and followed Snow to the car. Like Carlos she was in awe of the little villages and countryside. She glanced at the shop windows longing to be able to go in and try on clothes, everything she owned had either been salvaged from the barges or she made herself.

"Evie, I hope you don't mind but Dopey will be driving you back next weekend. His son, Doug, also goes to Auradon Prep, and it seemed silly for both of us to make the trip back."

Evie was surprised, "Oh thats ok, Doug and I are friends. I didn't know they lived near you."

Snow nodded, "Right down the street. The whole family does."

Evie smiled, she was glad that she would at least know someone nearby. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Did you ever marry your prince?"

Snow chuckled and shook her head, "No. We dated for a couple years. But I was only 14 when we met."

Evie's jaw dropped, she had always assumed that Snow White married her Prince, afterall thats what you did in fairy tales.

Snow smiled at how shocked Evie looked. "I was young and naive, once I was about your age I realized that I didn't need a prince, or anyone else, to make me happy. And if you think about it, a guy that climbs over walls to spy on girls and kisses girls he thinks are dead… that's creepy."

Evie laughed "I never thought of it that way."

" I had dreams; getting married and running a kingdom wasn't part of it. I'm not cut out for all the politics and King Beast wanted to unite the provinces so it made sense for me to step down and do what I love: Running the Inn. Eventually I bought it myself and changed it to a B&B and I couldn't be happier."

After what felt like forever, Snow White pulled into a parking space cleverly hidden in between some trees. Evie stepped out of the car and her jaw dropped as she saw the little inn where she would be staying. "Its so cute!" she squealed.

Snow laughed and a few birds flew near, she put out her finger and a small one landed on it. Some of her other woodland creature friends came over to say hello and meet their mistress' friend. Evie desperately wanted to reach a hand out to pet some of the animals but worried she would scare them. Snow lead the girl into the inn, she had to duck to get into the door, it was as if it was made for dwarfs. "We have 7 rooms upstairs for guests, each is themed after the 7 dwarfs. The parlor is to the left and dining room is on the right, the kitchen connects to it."

"Where will I sleep?" Evie asked wondering which dwarf room she would be in.

Snow smiled. "I have a little space off of the parlor, it has a small private living room, two small bedrooms, and a bathroom. Come follow me and you can get settled in."

Snow lead Evie into the space she had just described, it was small, there was a TV and a couple armchairs and a few nick nacks but nothing substantial. It was just a quiet place to be alone. Evies room had a bed and small dresser and mirror. It was much smaller than she had expected, smaller even than her room in the isle, but it was big enough. After she unpacked the outfits she brought for the week, noting that she would have to bring hangers next time and find a way to hang up her dresses on the pegs on the wall, she came out to find Snow waiting for her.

"Let's have some dinner." Snow lead Evie into the kitchen where she was able to whip up one of her specialty pot pies in no time and popped it in the oven. Evie couldn't wait to try it the smells coming from the oven made her mouth water. Evie and Snow continued to talk, Snow wasn't much older than Evie, only 34 so they got along quite well and had many similar interests and compared stories about Grimhilde. Evie learned that the Inn was actually the cottage Snow had found in the woods and had been remodeled to add the extra rooms and all 7 of the dwarfs and their families lived down the road, they all had homes of their own … right next door to each other. Evie and Snow chuckled at how close the brothers still were. Finally the pie was ready to eat and Snow served up a large slice for Evie. She bit into the flakey crust and couldn't believe the explosion of savory flavors in her mouth. Evie normally watched what she ate very very carefully, but this was too good to be fussy over. It was starting to get late so after washing up Snow and Evie both agreed to call it a night.

Evie awoke the next morning bright and early as she always did. She planned in plenty of time for her morning routine which usually started 2 hours before Mal would even stir. So she was surprised to see Snow up and about already.

"Oh Evie you're up, can you come help me in the kitchen please." Snow asked.

"But I haven't even done my make up yet." Evie couldn't believe anyone would expect her to do anything without make up on.

Snow white smiled gently "You're beautiful already."

Reluctantly Evie agreed thankful that she had at least done her hair and brushed her teeth, before going to help Snow with breakfast. Apparently they had a full house of guests that would be waking up soon. Snow had Evie so busy helping with breakfast that the girl somehow managed to forget she didn't have her makeup on.

"You look amazing this morning." a voice said and Evie jumped and looked up to see Doug standing there mesmerized by her.

Evie blushed,"Doug" she said breathless, "what are you doing here?"

"I work here on school breaks. Fixing things, or carrying bags for guests, whatever Snow needs help with."

"Oh, so I guess I'll see you more often then." Evie said shyly

"Yeah." said Doug softly, looking into Evie's eyes.

"Doug! Quit your lollygagging we have work to do." a gruff voice called from the other room that broke Doug out of his trance, he cleared his throat and shook his head to focus.

"I'm coming, Uncle Grumpy." he called back. Then looked back at Evie "I have to go… see you later?"

Evie smiled and nodded "I'd like that."

The morning flew by, after making breakfast and serving it and cleaning up, checking guests out, making up the rooms and checking new guests in, Evie had no idea how Snow did all this alone every day. Evie had always prided herself in her homemaking skills but even she couldn't keep up with Snow.

"Here's your key, you'll be in the Sleepy room." Evie said as she checked in a middle aged couple. The woman studied her for a long time and made Evie feel uncomfortable. "Can I help you with anything else?" she finally asked.

"I haven't seen you before." the woman said curtly. Evie felt like shrinking away as if these two were judging her for some reason, instead she pushed her shoulders back and held her head high.

"I'm new here." she answered hoping the couple would leave.

"So I see, and where did you come from?"

"I go to Auradon Prep."

"That's not what I asked." she snapped and Evie took a step back surprised by the harsh tone. She just blinked a few times in response not knowing how to handle the hostility she felt. Snow was quick to notice a problem and ushered the couple away to their room.

As soon as they were out of sight Evie ran out of the little cottage and into the forest where she eventually collapsed to the ground and sobbed. Snow White saw Evie run out of the door and gave a quick whistle to one of her little bird friends at the window. "Go keep an eye on her." Snow whispered and the bird whistled back and flew off to watch Evie.

Evie let herself cry for once, with no makeup on to worry about messing up (truely a first) she didn't feel bad about just letting everything out that she didn't realize she was holding on to. Being packed up and shipped off to a brand new place with totally different rules and expectations, where the only other people that understood you were also just teenagers and emotionally damaged themselves. A place where everyone thought you were less, just because of who you are and where you were born; the constant need to show them that you are more. It was a burden she didn't realize she had carried for so long. Evie wasn't sure how long she was out there before Snow came out.

Snow gently touched the girls shoulder and Evie looked up and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry." She sniffed, "I'm not usually like this."

"It's ok." Snow said before pulling Evie into a hug. "We all need a good cry from time to time."

 **Thanks for reading! Please leave a review and let me know what you thought!**


	19. Foie gras

**So who's totally excited about the D3 announcement tonight?! I am! I am!**

 **I was really hoping to update soon on "Mommy Missed You" but I've been so busy and now I'm sick, so it might be a bit. But its coming for those following that story too.**

 **danifan3000 - I'm not sure about the sister thing, Snow definitely takes on that roll, but I'm not sure if they're going to think of each other that way for a bit yet. We'll see, I'm still figuring it out too. :-) thanks for reading.**

 **FlatFox - the food issues are basically that they didn't have enough to eat and are still worried about where the next meal will come from. I haven't really addressed it much in any prior chapters but I do have some hints of it coming up in the future. Especially with Carlos.**

 **narutogirl103 - I think Evie is in pretty good hands, don't you? She'll be ok.**

"Hey Jay, you ready to get going?" Aziz said as he came over.

"Oh hey Aziz. Yeah, I'm ready I just want to wait for Mal to make sure she has her ride." Jay answered.

"You go ahead, I'll be ok." Mal said, but Jay could tell she was uneasy, she wasn't sure who was picking her up and no one had come over yet for her. Jay was not about to leave her standing on the front steps alone.

"No, I'm waiting with you." he said.

"But…"

"No." he said more firmly and for once Mal relented.

They didn't have to wait long before a fancy new town car pulled up. A driver got out and opened the back door and an older woman in a smart suit stepped out. She walked right up to Mal.

"Mal I presume?" she asked in a get right down to business way.

Mal looked at Jay with a quick look of panic before responding to the woman, "Yes, I'm Mal. You must be Queen Leah."

The woman pursed her lips and studied the girl for a moment. Mal wanted to melt into a puddle.

"Yes, well let's get going."

Mal turned and gave Jay a hug goodbye and waved to Aziz before grabbing her bag and walking over to the car. The chauffeur took her bag and closed the car door behind her once Mal was in.

Mal looked around the luxurious car, it was huge. She smiled weakly at the woman sitting next to her who's sour expression didn't change at all. Mal decided that looking out the window would be a good distraction and she bounced her leg nervously.

"You're awfully quiet." Queen Leah said after a while.

Mal looked over at the woman surprised by her comment, it annoyed her that the woman who she had just met about 20 minutes ago would be presumptuous enough to comment on her behavior when she didn't even know her. It annoyed Mal even more because the woman was absolutely right, Mal was almost never this quiet. The woman sat with a smug expression on her face waiting for Mal to answer. The girl cleared her throat.

"I'm just worried about my friends, we've never been a part like this." Mal had decided to answer honestly.

"That's preposterous, they're all going to lovely homes and fine Auradonian families." the woman dismissed Mal's concern as if it were trivial.

Mal sighed and leaned back again and watched the scenery as the car sped into Auroria. It soon became obvious that they were headed to the nicest of the nicest neighborhoods and finally pulled up to the biggest house on the private drive. The chauffeur got out and opened the doors for Queen Leah and Mal to get out. Mal was about to get her bag but Leah shook her head.

"Jeffrey will get it and bring it up to your room. Come."

Mal looked back at Jeffrey who nodded and gave her a little wink. Mal followed Leah into the house, a maid opened the door for them as they came closer and into the foyer.

Mal gaped at the exorbitant decorations and followed Leah as she showed her around the huge house.

"This is the main dining room, dinner is at 7 sharp, I do not tolerate tardiness, out there is the parlor where we serve drinks before dinner if we have company. And through those doors is the kitchen, but you don't have any reason to go in there, you can simply ask the staff to get you something to eat if you're hungry. Now over this way is the music room, and that is the library, and this is Stefan's study, you are not to go in there unless he specifically invites you in. This door back here leads to the patio and gardens and the pool is out through these doors over here." Leah went on for a while about several pieces of art and other not so interesting information about the house. Mal was only half listening. "Do you have any questions? Do you need anything" Leah finally asked.

Mal shook her head "No, ma'am. I think I'm all set."

"Call me 'Leah' the staff calls me 'ma'am' " Leah said. Mal looked over at the maid that was nearby and had clearly heard. It made Mal feel a little uncomfortable.

"Ok. Leah" she replied dutifully.

"Why don't you look around a bit on your own, get to know the place, make yourself at home, and we'll see you at 7 for dinner."

Mal nodded and wandered off to find her bedroom. She seriously doubted that she could make herself at home. You certainly couldn't put your feet up on the furniture here or lounge about, and the staff was everywhere. Mal found her room, or more accurately suite of rooms, there was a room that was like a small living room and a bedroom and bathroom off it. At least here Mal felt she could be a little more herself. Jeffrey had already brought up her things and placed the clothes in the closet or dresser and had carefully left the rest for Mal to put away as she felt. She looked out the window at the enormous backyard and pool and felt completely trapped.

At five to seven Mal headed down to dinner. When she walked into the dining room she saw Leah and Stefan already seated waiting for her.

"Mal!" Leah said "This is my husband former King Stefan. Stefan, dear, this is Mal."

The man looked up over his spectacles "Well hello young lady, so pleased that you'll be staying with us." Mal smiled genuinely.

"Thank you so much for having me." She said as she went to her seat.

"Why Mal, you haven't changed for dinner." Leah said, honestly surprised.

Mal looked down at the outfit she was wearing, her purple skinny jeans and a t-shirt, the same outfit she had on all day, she frowned slightly. "I can go put on an other t-shirt." she offered.

"Is that all you have?" Leah asked.

Mal furrowed her eyebrows in worry and looked down, for the first time ever feeling ashamed of her clothes.

"Leah." Stefan hissed hashly "remember where she is from she might not have the proper clothing."

Leahs face showed understanding "Ah, well then we will just have to go shopping and get you some suitable clothes. Agatha!" Leah called to one of the maids who scurried over.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Please clear my afternoon schedule tomorrow. Mal and I are going shopping."

The maid responded affirmatively and hurried away. "Now then, that'll be fun won't it."

Mal gave a little half smile and nod as another member of the staff came and set out the first course. Mal looked at the table settings. What was she supposed to do with all these forks?! On the isle forks were not necessary, if you couldn't grab it with your hand and run you weren't going to be eating. At school she had gotten used to having one of each but what were all the rest for? She felt completely overwhelmed by everything.

"Start with the outermost fork and work your way in." a butler whispered in her ear as he offered her the rolls. She smiled gratefully at him. She should have paid more attention to Evie when she tried teaching her all this.

"So Mal, tell us a little about yourself." Leah said after a few minutes. Mal quickly swallowed the roll she was chewing on.

"Well… I'm 16. I'm an only child. I like to draw and paint." she said not sure what the woman would be interested in knowing.

"Thats wonderful." Leah said in a false excited tone "Stefan, did you hear the girl? She said she likes art, isn't that just wonderful?"

"Yes, yes, very good." Stefan answered his wife dutifully and continued on with his dinner.

"What would you like to do when you're an adult?" Leah asked.

"I'm not really sure, I haven't really thought about it."

"Haven't thought about it! You're 16, you should have a plan set up by now of how you plan on getting to your goals."

"Leah!" Stefan interrupted "she has plenty of time."

Mal decided to interject "It's just that on the isle I didn't have a future," Mal shoved some of the food in her mouth and continued to talk, forgetting her manners of not talking with your mouth full "you can't really decide what you want to be, you just sort of survive or … not. I've only been here a couple months so I'm really still getting used to three meals a day and hot showers. What is this anyway?" Mal motioned to her plate.

"Foie gras." Leah answered aghast at both the conditions she just learned about and Mal talking with her mouth full.

Mal had no idea what foie gras was but she ate pretty much anything and it was surprisingly good. She finished off her plate quickly.

"That was really good." she praised the food. Leah was still speechless, and Stefan was quite amused by their new house-guest. This was going to be an interesting week indeed.

 **Thank you all so much for the follows and favs, it really feels awesome to know so many people are enjoying the story. Please remember to review, I love hearing what you think.**

 **Thanks!**


	20. trying something new

**TheGreatGodzilla, I could totally see Stefan being Mals dad. I can't wait for D3!**

 **FlatFox, you'll have to wait a little more for Carlos, he's coming up again soon.**

Jay watched Mal leave with Queen Leah.

"Tough break for her" Aziz said. Jay looked at the boy next to him and nodded his agreement.

"Alright let's go." He picked up his bag and the two boys headed to the van. If you didn't know better you would think they were twins the two boys looked so much alike. Although Aziz had a shorter hair style.

Aladdin grabbed Jays bag and tossed it into the back of the minivan and the boys climbed into the back. The drive was pretty quick Jay barely noticed because he, Aziz, and Aladdin were having a lively discussion about Tourney. Aladdin finally pulled into a housing tract in Little Agrabah and then into the driveway of a large mediterranean style home.

"Aziz, why don't you show Jay his room and the two of you can get settled in, I'm going to get started on dinner. Mom will be home a little later, she had some work to take care of tonight."  
Aladdin said as he headed in the house.

Jay followed Aziz into the house and tried not to stare. The place was spotless, well until he saw Aziz's room. And Carlos thought _he_ was messy! It didn't take Jay long to unpack and head down to the kitchen, following his nose. The scents coming up were similar to what his father had cooked on the rare occasion that he actually cooked.

"That smells wonderful." A woman's voice said coming into the room and Jay spun around to see Jasmine. "Ah you must be Jay." she said and extended a hand to shake.

Jay nodded and shook her hand "Nice to meet you." he replied.

"Aziz! Dinner!" Aladdin called and set the plate of mansaf on the table for dinner.

Jay enjoyed dinner very much. The food at Auradon Prep was good, and plenty of it, but it was your standard run of the mill "Food most kids like" rather than the exoctic flavors of Agrabah. There were many dishes Jafar had talked longingly of that they just didn't have the ingredients on the isle to make and Jay was eager to try them. His father had made mansaf but it was a little different.

"What kind of meat is this?" Jay asked as he helped himself to more.

Jasmine and Aladdin exchanged glances, most people didn't really want to hear the answer to that.

"Lamb." Aladdin finally answered.

Jay was surprised "Dad always used goat. You can't get lamb on the isle"

"Jafar cooked?" Aladdin asked surprised.

Jay chuckled a little "When he wanted to, he wasn't awful at it, but it was only a couple times a year usually."

"So did you cook?" Jasmine was curious what sort of food Jay grew up eating.

"Me? No, dad wouldn't let me touch the stove. Said I'd burn the place down or something. He was probably right." Jay said in between bites. "I usually just ate whatever I could find."

Jasmine glanced at Aladdin, he'd been there, scraping by, but that had been so long ago it was difficult to realize that the boy sitting at the table with her had lived a very similar existence.

Aziz thought it was about time to change the subject, "Hey Jay, I thought tomorrow we could go for a ride. I'll show you the neighborhood. What do you think?"

"A ride?" Jay asked confused.

"Yeah, a bike ride. You can use my dad's bike until we get you one."

Jay was still confused, "What's a bike?"

"... A bicycle."

Jay shook his head and shrugged still not having any idea what that was.

"I'm guessing you've never seen one before. Or know how to ride." Aziz said, suddenly realizing how different the boy next to him was even if they could be mistaken for twins.

The next day Aziz made it his mission to teach Jay how to ride a bike. Fortunately Jay was a quick learner and his natural athleticism made it so that he was able to pick up the new skill relatively easily with only a few small scrapes.

Once Aziz was confident Jay wasn't going to fall over and break anything they were off. Aziz was planning to pass by the nearby playground but Jay stopped and stared at the kids playing.

"You've never seen a playground before have you?" Aziz asked.

Jay shook his head, he was intrigued by it but didn't necessarily feel like he missed out, in a way he was able to run and climb all over the isle as much as he wanted to (or more often had to). After watching for a bit Jay was ready to move on, if he were a little smaller like Carlos he might have considered going to check it out.

They rode on Aziz showed him the local market, "We have a grocery store a few miles away but most of the neighborhood gets their food here." they passed some food kiosks on corners, bakeries, post office, fishmonger, and butcher. Aziz asked Jay if he wanted to see where the library was, Jay raised an eyebrow at the suggestion causing Aziz to laugh "Yeah, I didn't think so. We should get back, Mom'll get cranky if we're not back for dinner, and trust me, you don't want to see her when she's cranky."

Jay didn't think Jasmine being in a bad mood could be any worse than Jafar in a bad mood but agreed to head back.

As the boys were finishing up dinner Aladdin asked if they wanted to go swimming. Aziz was quick to agree but Jay declined and asked if he could be excused. Aladdin, Jasmine, and Aziz exchanged curious looks.

"I'll go talk to him." Aladdin offered

"Aziz, do the dishes." Jasmine said before the boy could run off to change.

"Aw come on, Mom." he whined. Jasmine raised her eyebrows

"Ok ok" Aziz relented.

Aladdin smirked, when Jasmine had left the room he chided his son "You know better than that."

"Jay?" Aladdin knocked on the door to Jays room. Jay sighed, but this was only day 2 he couldn't exactly be rude.

"come in."

Aladdin sat down on the chair by the desk. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you left so quickly because of the swimming thing?"

Jay nodded.

"Don't know how I assume."

Jay looked at his hands, how could he explain this, he just met the guy yesterday. Jay didn't open up to anyone, let alone the sworn enemy of his father, then again, if anyone could understand, it would be Aladdin.

"There's a shallow end you're more than tall enough to stand there." Aladdin offered when Jay didn't respond.

Jay didn't know that, but it still didn't solve his problem, but he didn't see another way out of it.

Jay looked at Aladdin, took a breath and pulled off his t-shirt. Aladdin was confused when the boy took off his shirt and then Jay turned around and the man gasped. Jay's back was covered with scars, some were small, other were broad and long, there were quite a few that looked like they had been stitched up. Aladdin stood up and looked at the boys back. He had been told there had been evidence of abuse but this?! It made sense Jafar's skill with a whip had been legend, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he wouldn't have spared his son from it.

"Who stitched these up?" he decided on a less conventional approach.

"Evie." Jay responded flatly.

Aladdin had heard the girl was an expert seamstress, "She'd make an excellent surgeon." He said. "I'll be right back." and he left the room.

Jay quickly put his shirt back on and sat down on the bed putting his head in his hands. He didn't know what just got into him the only people that knew were the other VKs. Aladdin came back in "Here." He handed Jay a shirt. "It's the same fabric they make swim trunks with, but its a shirt. They're starting to become more popular to wear."

Jay smiled this would work.

 **Thanks everyone for reading. Please leave a review or send me a PM to let me know what you thought.**


	21. Shopping

"Carlos, don't go running off today, we need to go to the grocery store." Anita said as she set down a plate of eggs and toast for Carlos. He immediate shoveled some in his mouth and nodded. He'd spent the most of the last few days outside from breakfast till dinner and had grown a few more freckles during the week.

Once he swallowed he asked "what's a grocery store?"

"It's where we go to get food."

Carlos looked confused, he knew where food came from on the isle, but he still hadn't quite figured out how the whole process worked in Auradon. Carlos didn't take long to get ready he was excited to see this new place.

Anita grabbed a cart at the entrance of the store, they walked through the produce section selecting a few fruits and veggies that she didn't have growing in her garden. Carlos couldn't believe the amount of food available to just take. He looked around wide eyed at the huge selection, although he'd gotten used to the abundance of Auradon over the past couple months in school he still had never seen this much variety. It was usually the same rotation of selection at the school. The lobsters in the tank kept his attention for a while until Anita noticed mothers of smaller children ushering them away as they gave nervous glances at Carlos. He was wearing his shorts, t-shirt and one of the hoodies Anita got him but with his hair, the dog tail attached to the various belts, his fingerless gloves, and his usual assortment of bracelets and other embellishments he stood out. Carlos didn't seem to notice the other shoppers skittering away from him, or if he did, didn't seem to care. Anita told him it was time to move on, he reluctantly followed behind.

Anita took him down an aisle with a variety of little tubes, "Do you have any deodorant yet?" she asked.

Carlos just made a face and shook his head. "What's that?"

"People put it on, under their arms, it makes them not smell bad."

"Do I smell bad?" Carlos asked concerned.

Anita smiled "No, but you're getting older. Usually when people grow up it happens."

"Do you and Roger wear deodorant?"

Anita nodded.

"How do I know what to pick?" Carlos looked at the shelves which had dozens of kinds of brands and several different scents. It was too much to pick from.

"This brand is pretty popular with teen boys, pick one of these." she showed him a brand with 3 different scents. He carefully took one off the shelf and lifted the cover to sniff it. He wrinkled his nose and set it back, then did the same with the second, that wasn't too bad. The final scent was ok, but he decided to go with the second pick. "This one." he showed Anita and she gestured for him to add it to the cart.

They wandered around several more isles. If you asked Anita how she would have described Carlos during that first shopping trip she would have said "hyperactive puppy", he was so excited about all the stuff he'd never seen before she had to constantly grab his hand to keep him from wandering off or touching everything.

"Carlos? Do you have a preference?" she asked about some cereal as she tried to decide between a few different types when she didn't get a response, she looked around the aisle but no Carlos. Anita quickly put the boxes back and walked down the center aisle looking for Carlos.

She started panicking slightly as she passed yet another aisle with no Carlos in it. Then she heard a commotion a couple ailes further down. When she got there she found Carlos sitting on the floor with several bags of various chocolate candy around him as he was happily sampling the different kinds of chocolate.

"Carlos!" she rushed over. There were murmurs from several onlookers about how parents don't raise kids right anymore and other judgmental comments. Anita glared at the onlookers "Show's over." she snapped protectively.

"Carlos, what are you doing?"

The boy looked up innocently, "Have you tried these? They're my favorite." He offered her a peanut butter cup.

Anita pinched the bridge of her nose. "Carlos, you can't just open these all up and eat them in the store. We have to buy them first."

Carlos looked down, "I'm sorry. I didn't know that."

"Its ok. Are there any you didn't open yet?"

Carlos pointed to a couple bags that were still closed and Anita put them back on the shelf, she was going to have to buy the rest of this, which was more candy than she typically bought in several months. "Please don't wander away again either."

Carlos hung his head, he'd upset Anita again. He hadn't meant any harm. He followed Anita to the check out and then helped her load the groceries into the car. The drive home was subdued. After helping carry the groceries into the house Carlos realized his stomach didn't feel so great. Anita also noticed that he looked a little peakid. "Carlos? Are you feeling ok?"

Carlos shook his head, "My stomach doesn't feel so good."

"Probably all that chocolate." Anita was quick to grab a bucket from under the sink and push it into the boys hands "go lay down, and use the bucket if you have to puke and can't make it to the toilet"

Carlos nodded and obediently headed up stairs.

/

"What do you mean you don't know what size you are?" Leah said with disbelief.

Mal stood in the middle of the fancy designer boutique not knowing how to respond as Leah and the sales lady gaped at her. "Well I've never exactly gone shopping before."

Leah just stared at her and Mal realized more of an explanation was needed. "I usually just grabbed whatever would fit and Evie made most of our clothes from the bits of fabric she could find."

"I see." Leah said and looked at the sales lady for help.

"I think she's probably a 4. Lets start there." Leah nodded and the next thing Mal knew she was being pushed into a changing room with a rack of clothing to try on. Mal's eyes grew wide and flashed green with annoyance looking at the extensive pile of clothing Leah expected her to try on.

"Let's just get it over with" Mal mumbled to herself and tried on the first outfit before stepping out to be inspected. Almost immediately Leah shook her head and sent her back in. And so it continued most of the outfits being rejected and only a handful passing before Leah said it was time to head to the next store. Mal wanted to scream.

Three stores and several hours later Leah finally was ready finish their shopping to Mal's relief. Mal was in excellent shape, having spent years running all over the isle, but hours shopping with Leah made her feet sore, her body fatigued, and in desperate need of a nap. Meanwhile Leah seemed to be full of energy. Mal wasn't sure how the woman did it as she trudged after her towards the car and was relieved when they finally pulled back into the driveway of the grand house. They had found multiple outfits that would be suitable for dinners and other social events that "Might come up" as well as many new outfits that Leah said she could take to school. Although Mal was able to put her foot down on some that she knew she would never wear because they were just not her style at all.

After a short nap, Mal pulled on one of the Queen Leah approved dresses for dinner and studied herself in the mirror. Evie would approve she thought, and snapped a quick picture to send to her best friend, who proceeded to freak out. Mal headed down to dinner with a little skip, feeling much more energetic after her short nap and knowing that Leah wouldn't find anything wrong with her dress tonight.

She walked through the doorway to the dining room and froze.

"Mal, I don't know if you know my granddaughter, Audrey, she goes to Auradon Prep too." Queen Leah introduced the girls not noticing the malice in either of their eyes as they both gave a fake laugh at the same time.

"Yes, we've met" said Mal as sweetly as she could muster, flashing green eyes at the girl sitting at the table already Audrey gave Mal an equally sinister glare.

"Oh good, I'm so glad you're both friends already!" Leah said completely oblivious to the hostility at her dinner table.

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	22. Audrey, Aziz, Doug, and tunafish

**Thank you for all the awesome reviews and comments, I hope that you all enjoy this next chapter. I'm sorry it took so long to post, I was kind of stuck a little. I'm still not 100% happy with all of this chapter but I didn't want to keep sitting on it either because stories don't type themselves. Enjoy**

Mal stared up at the ceiling in her obscenely large room, it was well past midnight and she didn't feel at all tired yet. Dinner had been difficult, fortunately she had learned the fine art of diplomacy from her mother, it had been the only thing that kept her from launching herself across the table and knocking Audrey out. Leah had been less than pleased with either of the girls verbal jabs and ended up sending them to their rooms, without dessert. Mal couldn't help but snicker at the look of horror Audreys face as if she'd never been rebuked in her life.

With a sigh Mal slipped out of bed and out of the room, she had managed to curb her desire for a drink over the past few weeks but knowing that there was quite a selection available nearby was too much temptation to ignore. She quietly made her way to the parlor where she knew several bottles were kept. Mal quickly read the labels of the various bottles, she had no idea what any of it was because she mostly drank the moonshine from Medusa, everything else on the isle was usually quickly claimed by the more powerful villains. She poured herself a glass of something called "vodka" and took a sip and smiled.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Mal spun around easily hiding the glass on the cart as she did. Audrey was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. Mal shrugged, " just looking"

Mal was about to leave the room when Audrey blocked her path. Mal gave her a confused look.

"Try it with some cranberry juice." Audrey said.

Mal furrowed her brow, "what?"

Audrey huffed and pushed passed the purple haired girl and opened the cabinet underneath. She grabbed some red juice and added it to the glass, then pulled out a wedge of lime from a small fridge and added it to the glass, she gave a small stir and handed it to Mal. "try this."

Mal took a small sip. "That's really good."

Audrey turned back to the bar and made one for herself as well. "Gram and Gramps are sound sleepers and the staff won't care as long as you don't over do it. Make sure you wash out the glass when you're done and put it back."

Mal nodded, no evidence, Audrey knew her stuff.

The two girls looked at each other for a moment, neither of them really knew what to say.

"Don't forget to put it back, Gram notices everything and I would hate to lose my supply when I'm here because you screwed something up." Audrey warned again before pushing past Mal and heading up to her room.  
Mal looked down at her glass before downing the light red drink, she quickly cleaned the glass in the kitchen and returned it before heading back to her room more confused than ever.

/

"Aziz! Take out the trash please." Jasmine called from the living room "Aziz, are you listening to me?!" the woman sounded irritated that her son wasn't answering her.

Jay rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag himself, he wasn't sure where Aziz was, but he was tired of hearing Jasmine yelling. Once outside Jay realized he had no interest in going back inside, it was a beautiful day and they still had a couple of hours before dinner so he hopped on the bike that he had been using all week and decided to ride down to the the sporting goods store to check out some of the new tourney equipment.

Jay walked in nonchalant and perused the store checking out equipment for various sports he was just starting to learn about. Coach had commented that swords and shields tryouts would start a week after the final tourney game. Jay couldn't believe how many different types there were, he had no idea which would be needed for school but he decided to get some prices, maybe he could find a way to earn some money to buy some of his own things. The school provided everything necessary but it wasn't always the best quality, having been used for gym classes and several seasons of the sport as well.

"There he is! That's the kid." Jay heard someone call out, he looked around and saw one of the store associates pointing to him and a security officer rushing towards him.

Jay wasn't about to waste any time waiting to find out what they wanted, his instincts took over and he bolted out of the store, grabbed his bike, and took off. In less than a week Jay had become more than just a little proficient on a bike and Aziz had shown him several of the designated bike paths in town, and the unofficial paths. Jay launched himself off the end of the sidewalk over a ditch and into a wooded area before quickly skidding to a halt and hiding behind a tree as police cars drove by. Jay headed back to the house, put the bike away, and headed in to wash up for dinner. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something going on.

"Hey Jay, I was looking for you earlier." Aziz said poking his head in Jays room.

"Just went for a little ride." Jay answered. "Where were you? Jasmine was trying to get you to do some chores. I ended up just doing them so she'd be quiet."

Aziz's eyes widened at this news "I was just… out."

"You didn't happen to go to the sporting goods store did you?"

"Maybe…" Aziz looked away guiltily.

Jay hardened his eyes and glared at Aziz "What did you do?" he hissed.

Aziz glared back "It was just a new glove for tourney, mine's ripped up." he defended himself. "But think of it this way, if mom thought you were me, then imagine what we could pull off."

Jay looked back at Aziz pointedly.

"Oh come on, you can't tell me you don't miss it a little, the adrenaline rush."

Jay looked down at his hands, he couldn't argue with that, it took everything he had not to pickpocket half the school every day. He looked up at Aziz who was waiting for his reply. Jay just gave him a sly grin.

/

Evie and Snow had fallen into a comfortable routine fairly easily each morning she had gotten up and helped Snow with the various morning chores around the B&B, then after lunch she could do whatever she wanted which usually was working on her dress designs or hanging out with Doug. Snow even said that they could figure out a work space for her on the next school break so she could actually work on making the dresses.

Evie was also enjoying spending more time with Doug and getting to know him. On the isle Evie was well aware of her appeal and what it could get her. And unlike Mal she enjoyed the attention, sometimes even scoping out her next victim to toy with simply because she enjoyed it. Getting to know someone on a deeper level besides physical desires was brand new to Evie, but old habits die hard, and when Doug suggested they take a stroll by moonlight Evie didn't think twice. Or really once if we're being honest about it. She had climbed out her window at quarter to midnight and met up with the boy. They had shared a few cautious pecks throughout the week but Evie craved more and she had no problem teaching the inexperienced Doug what she liked.

By 3am though both teens were tired and decided to head home. Evie cautiously climbed into her bedroom window and was about to change when the light flicked on and Snow White was sitting on her bed looking very unhappy indeed.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been?!" scolded Snow.

Evie opened her mouth to answer but nothing came out.

"No note, just gone… I had no idea if you ran away, or were kidnapped, or if you were just out being stupid."

Evie cringed at the harshness of Snow's voice.

"Go to bed, we'll talk more when its daylight. And don't even think about leaving again." Snow warned before heading out of the room to her own.

Evie changed and fell into her bed and stared out the open window at the stars, that did not go as she had imagined. Well firstly she'd never been caught before, on the isle sneaking in and out of her room had been pretty easy and her mother had always been a sound sleeper, apparently Snow White wasn't. She hadn't even thought about how the young woman that took her in would react to her evening escapades. Her euphoria from being with Doug quickly dissipated leaving her confused, she supposed sneaking out wasn't the smartest thing, but would Snow know about everything else? Would she care? Her mother certainly wouldn't have, she would have only been disappointed that Evie hadn't used it to her advantage and gained something from her exploits. But this was Auradon and everything here was completely different.

The following morning Evie helped out with the normal chores, but the tension between her and Snow was obvious, finally at lunch Snow started up the conversation and let Evie know just how displeased she was. And before she knew it Evie found herself with an exorbitantly long list of chores to do that day and when Doug showed up later that afternoon he was greeted by Snow who immediately took hold of his ear and led him back home while Evie gave him an apologetic look.

Evie looked back at the pile of dishes stacked up and sighed. This wasn't exactly the end to the almost perfect week she had hoped for.

/

Carlos put the clothes he had come with in the garbage bag, his book bag contained his laptop and toothbrush. There that was easy, he thought. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to take the clothes Roger and Anita had gotten for him but decided it would be better not to, he didn't want to be accused of stealing anything.

Anita knocked at the door before coming in "Are you almost ready?" She asked.

Carlos nodded and held up his bag. Anita looked at him confused. "Whats that?" she finally asked.

"My stuff."

"You can't possibly have fit your clothes in there." Anita said and then abruptly left the room leaving Carlos confused. A moment later she came back in with a medium large gym bag. "This should hold your clothes." She said as she opened the drawers and started packing up all the clothes Carlos had left in there, then she went to the closet and took the few items hanging up and packed them all in the bag. Carlos just stood there unsure what he should do.

"Whats this then?" Anita asked as she noticed a box in the far back corner of the closet and pulled it out.

Carlos was about to explain but before he could Anita spoke up again, "Rotten peaches? Half eaten sandwiches? And … I thought the back of the linen closet was a good hiding spot for all that chocolate… apparently not." she seemed a bit disappointed that Carlos had discovered the hiding spot so quickly "What are you doing with all this? Were you planning on leaving it in the closet to rot till next school break? This will attract rodents and will smell."

Carlos wasn't sure how to answer her questions, "I .. just…" he sat down on the bed, frustrated because he didn't know how to explain.

Anita waited patiently just looking at him and Carlos knew he had to just spit it out. "If you decided not to feed me." Carlos finally choked out and looked up his eyes were wet. Anita gasped and looked shocked that the boy would believe that.

"Oh Carlos," Anita said as she sat next to him on the bed, "we'd never not feed you."

"Roger said he wouldn't"

Anita cringed remembering the second night when he hadn't shown up till long after dinner was over. "Yes, I know." now it was Anita's turn to not know how to explain what she was thinking. "Here's the deal Carlos. Roger and I won't ever keep you from meals, but if you don't show up for dinner without letting us know you're running late, then you forfeit it. We're not going to just set dinner aside for you for when ever you decide to show up, you need to take responsibility for being home for dinner on time. Understand?"

Carlos thought it over for a few minutes, the rules at Auradon Prep were the same when it came to meals, there were set times, if you didn't show, you didn't get to eat, unless you found another way to get food, which of course Carlos and Jay had with in a week. And of course he and Jay had a stash of food in their room too, although Anita seemed less than pleased with his stash. Finally he nodded. It was as fair as it was going to get.

"Good, and please, no more food in your room. This is just gross." She held up what was once a tuna sandwich, "you could get sick from this."

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	23. Birthdays and the scapegoat

**The Last Sea Serpent -** **EroSlackermicha -** **FlatFox - thank you all for your reviews!**

 **A/N - Warnings: this chapter contains implications of sex, drugs, alcohol, and corporal punishment, so if that bothers you and you keep reading its really your own fault.**

Evie stared at the ceiling of the car as they drive through the country towards Auradon Prep, she would very much have liked to put her fingers in her ears to stop the constant babbling but had been told to take them out twice already. She sighed, although not loudly, as she glanced at Doug in the front seat who looked like he wanted to disappear entirely. Who would have thought a man that was famous for never speaking could ramble on for 3 solid hours about not sneaking out at night, and STDs, and birth control. Did he ever stop for air?! Doug gave her an apologetic look as he glanced back briefly.

After what was just short of eternity (or 3 and half hours) Dopey pulled into the parking lot at Auradon Prep and he, Doug, and Evie got out of the little car. Doug and Evie taking the opportunity to stretch after being crammed into the small space.

"Thank you for the ride back, Mr. Dopey." Evie said politely, after all her mother didn't spend years drilling manners into her for nothing.

The little man just nodded, and Evie leaned down and kissed the top of his head resulting in a crimson flush over his whole face. He bashfully handed Evie her bags and the blue haired princess headed off to her friends after a little wave goodbye to Doug.

"I knew you liked her, dad." Doug smiled looking down at the little man next to him. Dopey gave his son a smile, followed by a warning glare of what would happen if he found out about any further incidents. Doug rolled his eyes, "Don't worry." Doug grabbed his bag and followed Evie into the front doors.

Evie quickly found Jay waiting on the steps and she quickly gave him a big bear hug. A week was the longest any of them had ever gone without seeing each other.

"Thanks Audrey, see you later." Evie could hear Mal's voice and looked past Jay to see Mal waving bye to Audrey of all people before coming over to join Evie and Jay.

Jay crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Audrey, M?" Evie asked.

"She isn't _so_ bad." Mal admitted a little sheepishly.

"Hey guys!" Carlos cried out as he ran over to the little group with a big smile, Evie pulled him close in a huge hug.

Jay looked at the large bag Carlos was carrying "What's all that?" he asked suspiciously as the group headed inside.

Carlos grinned, "Roger and Anita bought me some clothes."

Evie smiled "Just put that bag in our room." she ordered the boy, she wasn't about to let anyone from her group walk around in non-Evie-approved clothes.

"Yes ma'am" Carlos saluted "don't worry Anita said you could fix them up however you wanted."

When the boys had left to go to their room Evie started pulling out the new clothes and checking them out, they were your basic t-shirts, jeans, and hoodies, but she could work with them making sure that Carlos' personality came through.

"Hey E," Mal called over, " so its Jay birthday tomorrow, I thought we should have a little party tonight." she held up two bottles of liquor with a huge grin.

"Mal, where did you get those?" she asked.

Mal gave her friend and impish smile "Audrey actually."

/

Mal checked the clock on her phone. "12:01am" it glowed up.

"Lets get this party started." she winked at Evie before opening the door to the boys room.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY" they shouted at Jay, along with Lonnie, Audrey, Jane, Doug, Aziz, and Ben.

Jay sat up sleepily and looked at the group before smiling. He hadn't yet been asleep anyway so he didn't mind too much. He happily took a cup from Ben as Aziz put on some music and Mal cast a charm on the room so that no one out of the room could hear them.

"Comeon C" Mal said hopping onto his bed and passing him a cup as well. The smaller boy glared at her, he had been sound asleep and was not happy about the current situation as he took the cup thrust into his hand.

It had been ages since Mal had been to a party, as far as she could tell it wasn't much of a thing in Auradon, other than the tourney team victory parties, which was different because there was adult supervision. Of course, Mal realized, she really hadn't made any friends here yet either, there was the one time she and Ben hung out, and now Audrey but most of her time she spent in class and with the other VKs. Mal realized how little she had really gotten to know people in Auradon. Carlos and Jane were almost inseparable although she didn't see anything romantic between them yet, they were just like best friends. Evie and Doug had disappeared together somewhere around 2am, she didn't think they'd be coming back to the party. Jay had seemed to make the most friends so far, there was Lonnie and Aziz of course, and the entire tourney team liked him, and almost every girl in the school. Mal just didn't quite know how to make friends though, she was ok as a bit of an outlier, but still it made for a slightly boring social life if you didn't know about anything fun going on.

Mal sat down on the window and took a few puffs of the joint Ben had brought, "so how much trouble would we all be in if they found us?" she asked.

Ben chuckled, "first, we won't get caught. Second, I'm here, there are certain benefits to being crown prince." he was quite confident in his answer, "but just the same its almost 4am, and we DO have class tomorrow." He and Mal looked around the room. As she suspected Doug and Evie never returned. Jane had left to go to bed hours ago. Jay, Aziz, Lonnie, and Audrey were still talking but they all looked tired. And poor Carlos looked a bit sick and like he just wanted to go to sleep.

"Ok, lets get a few hours of sleep before we have to get up." she announced. Aziz, Lonnie, Audrey, and Ben all left and she curled up in her normal spot with Jay. She didn't want to chance walking in on Evie and Doug.

/

Carlos groaned as he slowly opened his eyes; he hated parties. The last one he had gone to , the one Mal made him throw at Hell Hall, had resulted in being locked in his room/closet for a week. Nothing good ever came from Carlos going to a party. The room was a mess, his head pounded, and an annoying bird at the window chirped happily. With a large yawn the boy rolled over and looked at the clock.

'9:45' it read "Shit" Carlos sprung up, first period was almost over, he threw on his clothes and brushed his teeth and raced out of the room. He ran right to his dreaded second period class walking in a few seconds after the bell rang.

"You're late Mr. De Vil." Willerstein said, Carlos noted that he hadn't commented on Chaz Charming being late and he had walked in right behind Carlos. Carlos' head swam from the after effects of last night's celebration and he struggled to stay awake, let alone pay attention.

"Mr. De Vil…" Carlos ignored the buzzing voice in his head.

"Mr. De Vil…" the voice was a bit louder and then Carlos felt a kick which jarred him in to the present he looked up to see Willerstein glaring down at him "stay after class, Mr. De Vil,we have a few things we need to… discuss."

Fear flashed in Carlos' eyes before he was able to hide it behind his callous mask. "Yes, sir." he answered sounding a lot braver than he felt. Every time he was made to stay after class with Willerstein it had only resulted in a sore bum. He waited in his seat as the class filtered out of the room at the end of the period and then made his way up to the front of the classroom. Willerstein grabbed the boys chin and forced his face up. Carlos made eye contact for a moment before dropping his gaze.

"You're drunk." the man said matter of factly.

"No, sir."

"Hung over then."

Carlos didn't try to argue, his head hurt too much to try. "Right then, late for class, sleeping in class, and hung over… someone's going to be a sorry boy indeed. Over you go." Willerstein pushed Carlos towards the desk. Carlos knew there was no use in fighting it, Willerstein had already proved himself stronger so Carlos bent over the desk and resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't be sitting comfortably for at least the rest of the day.

It didn't take long but it was still by far the worst punishment Willerstein had ever delivered in his tenure and it took Carlos a good while to slow his sobs enough to push himself off the desk when it was over. Amazingly Willerstein was patient and didn't rush the boy out of his classroom and even handed him some tissue, which was probably the nicest thing he'd done in months. He also handed the boy a late pass for his next class but Carlos knew he wouldn't be using it. There was no way he would be walking into math class halfway through with a tear streaked face and a sore bottom, he gingerly made it back to his dorm where he flopped onto the bed went to sleep. He woke up several hours later only to realize he had also slept through lunch, programing, and biology had already started. He showered and dressed, he still could make it to Goodness Class. The last thing he wanted was Fairy Godmother on his case about classes.

/

The VKs left goodness class chatting away about their new "families" but all four froze as soon as they passed through the doorway. Standing there with her arms crossed and a look that could make Maleficent wither was Anita. Carlos swallowed and tried not to panic. It was more than clear she wanted to talk to him and that she was not pleased.

"Good luck bro." Jay whispered and gave the smaller boy a reassuring pat before walking off to get ready for tourney. Evie gave his hand a squeeze before heading off with Mal.

"Lets go to my office to talk." Anita said when the others were a little further away. Carlos wasn't sure if he liked that idea, but then again he didn't really want to be berated in the hall either, so he followed the woman to her office which was only a few doors down. "Sit" she indicated to a chair in front of her desk. Carlos thought he'd rather not but didn't think disobeying would be a good idea at the moment, so he cautiously took a seat trying not to wince as he did so. Anita didn't seem to notice.

"Ms. Daisy sent me a note this morning. Any idea what it might have been about?" Anita said as she leaned against her desk and looked down at the boy who had found the outdated shag carpet fascinating. He didn't answer.

"I see… I've also gotten messages from Mrs. Cartesian, Mr. Data, and Mr. Boyle that you've missed all of their classes today." Carlos maintained his interest in the rug. "Carlos, look at me." Anita ordered.

The boy looked up at met her gaze briefly before dropping his eyes again. "Well? Why weren't you in class?"

Carlos shrugged.

"Carlos…" she said warningly but the boy didn't respond. For a kid raised on the isle he was an awful liar and any excuse he gave would quickly be unraveled, and he was not about to throw everyone else under the bus to save his hide, snitching on the isle was a sure fire way to end up dead.

Anita knew skipping class was not typical for Carlos, the kid loved learning, Anita was hoping for some sort of explanation, she studied the boy in front of her wondering if he might be ill, or just trying to avoid further incrimination.

"Are you feeling alright?"

Carlos nodded and Anita raised an eyebrow. "Verbal answer please."

"I'm fine." he mumbled out, and it was true, after his long nap the hangover was gone and he felt better, except for the loud grumble in his stomach from missing both breakfast and lunch today.

"Did you eat today?"

"No, ma'am"

Anita pinched the bridge of her nose and took a breath. "After dinner tonight you're to go directly to your room, you're grounded for the rest of the week, Mrs. Potts will bring you breakfast and dinner, you may eat lunch with your friends in the cafeteria…"  
"That's not fair! You can't do that." Carlos shouted.

"I'm your guardian and a teacher here, I most certainly can." Anita retorted, she noticed the boy was about to argue again "One more word and you'll be coming home with me for the weekend."

Carlos glared at her, he liked their home, and it was nice going there for the school break, but he didn't want to be dragged there as a punishment while all his friends stayed at school.

"Now, unless you'd like to explain yourself, you may go to dinner, and I will know if you do not go directly to your room after." Anita said, her voice sounded tired, and it was only Monday.

Carlos stormed out of the room. 'Worst. Day. Ever.' He thought as he found his friends in the cafeteria.

"What was that all about?" Mal asked when Carlos carefully sat down.

"Nothing."

The purple haired girl looked at him and her eyes flashed green making Carlos squirm and finally relent. "I'm grounded."  
Evie, Mal, and Jay looked at him incredulously.

"Why?" Evie whispered.

"Cause you three decided to have a party in my room all night and I couldn't sleep, so I missed first period, and then fell asleep in Willersteins class and got my ass handed to me, and then I was too sore and tired to go to the others, so now I'm in trouble for skipping." he hissed at his friends, while trying to blink back tears. He grabbed his apple from his tray and left as Mal, Evie, and Jay looked at each other guiltily, they all knew this was their fault.

"We really screwed up this time guys." Evie whispered. Mal and Jay nodded in agreement, suddenly none of them were hungry for their dinner.

 **As always thanks for reading and please leave a review.**


	24. The all knowing Mrs Radcliffe

**Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, followed, and favorited my story.**

 **FlatFox - glad you liked my scary Anita.**

 **EroSlackerMicha - they certainly are still figuring it out.**

 **Lil Lost Lady - thanks for all your supportive comments, it definitely gave me a little push to keep writing.**

 **Guest - thanks for reading!**

"I think I'll make Carlos some of that bruise salve tonight. Evie, think you can get me into the advanced chem lab?" Mal asked as she picked at her dinner.

Evie thought about it for a few minutes before nodding. "I think we'll have to wait till Mr. Deley leaves for the night, but it should be easy enough."

The girls spent the remainder of the evening procuring the various ingredients needed for Mal's special bruise salve. After the final curfew check at midnight they cautiously crept down to the chemistry lab that held the equipment needed. An hour later Evie's phone began to buzz on the lab bench. "Its Jay." she said, her tone a mixture of worry and curiosity. She quickly answered and talked to Jay for a few minutes while Mal carefully added aloe to her beaker that was serving as her cauldron for the evening.

"Its Carlos, he's having another nightmare." Evie explained to Mal.

The purple haired girl nodded "Go, I've got this from here, I'll bring it to the boys room when I'm done." And with that, Evie ran out of the room to the boys dorm. She sprinted down the halls hoping that others were in a deep enough sleep not to hear her pounding footfalls. When she reached Jay and Carlos's room she tried to enter only to be pushed back by the invisible barrier.  
"Damn it Carlos, grounded or a nightmare, not both!" She hissed in frustration as Jay came to the doorway.

"I can't wake him." He said in a scared tone as he gestured towards Carlos in the bed who was tossing and turning, his voice already hoarse from screaming.

"I'm getting Mrs. Radcliffe" Evie announced and ran off towards the teachers rooms, she skidded to a halt as she reached the hallway and carefully read the name plates on the doors. Waking one teacher would be bad enough, she had no desire to wake more than was necessary. That lasted about 30 seconds till she found Mrs. Radcliffes door and began pounding on it. The door sprung open and a bleary eyed woman with disheveled hair peered out of the room.

With a bit of a yawn the woman looked at Evie, "I do hope it's an emergency."

"Carlos…. Nightmares…" Evie gasped.

Anita nodded and pulled on her robe "Right then, let's go." and the two made their way to Jay and Carlos.

Being a teacher Anita had no issues going into the room. Jay was frantic at not being able to calm the younger boy, and Evie paced outside the doorway. She was always the one that calmed Carlos on bad nights. Always. And being unable to cuddle the younger boy in his distress was breaking her heart. Anita scooped up Carlos onto her lap and cradled him in her arms, speaking soothingly to him till he calmed down. She was a little surprised that she could do that to a 14 year old, but Carlos was rather small. It didn't take long for him to wake up and in his sleepy state didn't seem to mind being comforted.

"Jay! Jay! I've got the salve for Carlos." Mal said rather loudly from the doorway before quickly closing her mouth when she saw Mrs. Radcliffe in the room as well. Jay was about to grab the small container from Mal when Mrs. Radcliffe beat him to it.

The woman looked at the jar curiously. "Whats this then?" she asked Mal, "and why is it so urgent that you give it to Carlos at… " she glanced at the clock "2:30 in the morning?"

"I… I … uh… " Mal really had no answer.

Mrs. Radcliffe narrowed her eyes at Mal and studied her for a moment. "I'll see that he gets it, please go to bed, both of you. And Evie, thank you for coming to get me."

Evie nodded and pulled a reluctant Mal back towards their room.

"Carlos…" Anita looked at the boy sitting stiffly on the bed "why did Mal feel this salve was so urgent?"

"It's just a salve to heal bruises." the boy responded looking a little uncomfortable.

"You have a bruise bad enough to require this at 2am?" Anita asked as she studied Carlos's face. She glanced up at Jay who was finding his fingernails fascinating.

"Its no big deal."

"Oh good, then you won't mind showing me."

Carlos's looked up panic written all over his face, he glanced at Jay who merely shrugged. Anita crossed her arms and postured in that 'I'm waiting' stance; Carlos knew he wasn't going to win. Defeated he stood up, turned around and lowered his pajama bottoms several inches. It was nowhere near the full extent of the damage but Anita gasped at what she did see. "Lay down on your stomach, I'm going to put some of this salve on you." She ordered the boy. He obeyed without complaint but did bury his bright red face in his arms, Evie was the only one that ever had taken care of his bruises and other injuries before. Anita pulled the pajama bottoms down further exposing the bruises that went half way down the back of the boys thighs. The woman could tell it was badly damaged as the bruising was deep and would take many days to fully heal. "oh Carlos." Anita gasped as she took in the damage.

*crack* Anita and Carlos looked up over at Jay who guiltily gestured at the wall. Seeing how bad of shape Carlos was in Jay lost his temper and punched a hole in the wall. Anita gave him a reproachful look but didn't comment before turning back to Carlos.

"Who did this?" she demanded.

Carlos just shook his head. Anita pressed her lips together as she began to apply the salve. She knew there were only 3 teachers at Auradon Prep that ever used corporal punishment, it wouldn't be hard for her to find out who it was even if Carlos didn't say.

"Um hum… and what did you do to warrant this?"

"Nothing!"

"Carlos, there had to be some reason, justifiable or not. I suggest you tell me the truth now, because I will find out why."

Carlos pressed his lips together and looked in the other direction, his mother tricked him with that before. He knew better than to be honest to an adult if there was even the slightest hint you were in trouble. What Carlos didn't know was how differently adults in Auradon handled children. On the isle villains didn't talk to each other about who's kid did what, but in Auradon teachers and parents were often in communication, and by breakfast time Anita would have all the information she would need.

"All right, I want the two of you to get to bed." she said gently as she tucked in Carlos, "if you oversleep come see me in the morning and I'll write you passes for your classes."

/

Carlos, Jay, Mal, and Evie managed to get themselves up and to classes a few hours later, and except for Willerstein sending Carlos to the corner again (he really had no idea what he'd done wrong), the day was fairly uneventful, until they were dismissed from Remedial Goodness class. The four teenager were just looking forward to catching a quick nap but as they exited the room they found Anita standing there with her arms crossed and a very displeased expression on her face again. Mal, Evie, and Jay looked at Carlos with sympathy thinking he'd done something they didn't know about. Carlos did look a bit worried.

"Come with me. ALL of you." Anita ordered and lead them back to her office. The teens reluctantly followed the short distance to the teachers office where she turned to them abruptly, "Carlos, in. The rest of you wait out here."

Carlos visibly paled but shuffled in and sat down. Jay, Mal, and Evie looked at each other nervously before taking a seat on the floor against the wall.

Anita crossed her arms and leaned back on her desk and gave Carlos a hard look for what felt like forever to Carlos as he squirmed uncomfortably on the chair. "I spoke to Mr. Willerstein this morning." Carlos glanced up, surprised. "He told me you were hung over in his class and that's why he punished you. Is that true?" Carlos slowly nodded. "Verbal answers if you please."

"Yes, ma'am." the boy whispered.

"And is that why you skipped most of your other classes yesterday?"

"Sort of, I slept through first period, and after Willerstein was done with me I couldn't sit so I went back to my room and fell asleep. I didn't mean to sleep that long though."

Anita looked thoughtfully at the boy, she was trying not to show how mad she really was. "Where did you get the alcohol?" Carlos squirmed but didn't answer. "I see. Well I should probably inform you that if Mr. Willerstein had not already been so thorough with disciplining you Roger would be on his way over to handle it in a very similar manner."

Carlos' head shot up, his eyes flickered with fear and uncertainty, and his jaw dropped open a little. Anita gave the boy a pointed look before continuing. "Mr. Radcliffes views on discipline tend to be more old fashioned, he's fair though and won't go overboard as I believe Mr. Willerstein has done, however if the offence warrants it you will not be in a comfortable position. So I warn you now, do not give him reason to have to punish you."

The boy closed his eyes feeling defeated, that would be impossible, he was always in trouble. Anita strode over to the door and opened it asking the other teens to come in.

Once everyone was in the office and seated, except Jay who leaned up against the back wall. Anita looked at the 3 older kids. "Evie. Mr. Deley found this in his classroom this morning, I believe its yours." She held up a small make up bag that Evie almost always had with her. The blue haired girl nodded and Mrs. Radcliffe handed it back to her.

"Thank you." she said simply.

"Why was it in the advanced chemistry lab in the first place. Mr. Deley said it was not there last night when he locked up the room. This morning it was there and the room was unlocked. Would you please explain."

"I was making the bruise salve for Carlos." Evie said.

"Yes, I figured that, but that begs me wonder why you waited till after curfew to start. You and Mal were both checked on at the midnight check. Why didn't you ask to use the lab in the evening. I'm sure Mr. Deley would have been ok with it, he says you are an excellent student in his class and would no doubt have allowed you use of the lab. He may have wished to stay in the room to supervise in case of an accident but surely that wouldn't have been a problem if you were only making a simple bruise salve. Why didn't you just ask him?"

Evie looked shocked, her head was spinning, could it really have been that simple. Could she really just have _asked_. The idea had never even occurred to her. "I guess I didn't think to do that." she admitted.

Mrs. Radcliffe inclined her head as she thought it over these weren't kids from Auradon that trusted adults, that went against their instincts entirely. "And why didn't anyone just go to the nurse? Nurse Flora has a variety of medical balms available to students."

"Oh." was all Evie could say, she hadn't even thought off that either.

Mrs. Radcliffe pressed her lips together giving both Mal and Evie a disapproving look on how they choose to handle the situation. "I hope the two of you make better choices going forward."

"Yes, ma'am." Mal and Evie responded.

"Now there is one more area I'm concerned with at the moment. It seems that Carlos was drinking alcohol sometime sunday evening, I know he didn't get it from my house, so that leads me to wonder where he got it from, its not exactly available in the cafeteria. Unfortunately he's not been forthcoming with that information so I was hoping the three of you could shed some light on it because I don't believe he acted alone on this little indiscretion. " Carlos wanted to just disappear, Jay shifted a little uncomfortably, Evie worried her bottom lip and wouldn't make eye contact, and Mal seethed at Mrs. Radcliffes successful guilt trip on them all.

Anita watched the four teens carefully, she already had her answers by their guilty expressions, even if they were trying to hide them. She had already reviewed the video footage from the dorm hallway that evening and knew exactly who was in Carlos' room that night. But Anita would rather have them confess, she didn't want to show her hand just yet.

Finally Mal gave in, she was their leader, and it had been her idea, she wasn't going to let Carlos take all the blame, "It's my fault. I gave it to him." Mal admitted finally.

"Thank you for being honest, Mal. Were you drinking too?"

Mal nodded.

Anita pursed her lips "Jay, Evie, were you?"

"Yes." said Jay while Evie nodded.

"And was anyone else involved in this stunt?"

Silence.

"I see, well I should warn you that I do not appreciate dishonesty and I WILL find out. Are you sure you don't want to tell me?" Mrs. Radcliffe looked at the four VKs who refused to meet her eyes. Anita sighed, "ok, you'll be serving a special detention Saturday morning and I'll be letting your guardians know what happened as well."

Jay wasn't sure how Aladdin and Jasmine would react, but he didn't think they'd be jumping for joy. Evie cringed at the lecture she knew she'd be getting next time she saw Snow. And Mal somehow lost even more color, Leah and Stefan had been very generous if a little standoffish, she didn't know how they would take the news and that made her more nervous than if she did know what to expect.

"But I've already been punished!" complained Carlos.

Anita raised her eyebrow, "You're grounded for missing classes. And Mr. Willersteins punishment I'll say is from the school. This is from me, as your guardian, for partaking in underage drinking. Any other concerns?" she said cooly.

Carlos quickly changed his mind about arguing, he didn't think it was fair but he wasn't going to win this. He quickly shook his head.

"Go to your rooms and stay there, Mrs. Potts will bring you up dinner soon. " Mrs. Radcliffe dismissed the group.

 **please leave a review!**


	25. Consequences

**EroSlackerMicha - you're so right, they aren't sure what to think.**

 **FlatFox - thanks so much. Anita is definitely becoming one of my favorites as well.**

 **Warning: this chapter contains some child abuse, I don't think its horrible but if you're gonna be offended by it then please move on.**

Dinner was a quiet affair that evening. Mrs. Potts had brought in that evening's meal, roast beef, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a salad. Along with milk and a pitcher of water. No dessert. "Naughty children don't get dessert" she said cooly when Jay had asked. Carlos, of course, already knew that from the last time he was on restriction. He was just happy he had someone to eat with that evening. Not that Jay ate much, his stomach churned, not knowing what was going to happen was sure to give anyone anxiety.

"Dude, how can you eat?" Jay questioned the younger boy who had finished most of his meal and was for once eyeing Jays rather than the other way around.

Carlos shrugged, "I guess cause I've already gotten my punishment out of the way, except for the detention on Saturday."

Jay nodded, that made sense, he had no idea how Jasmine and Aladdin would respond to finding out what happened.

/

Fairy Godmother was most displeased at the news and made sure all of them heard it loud and clear, for the entire period of Remedial Goodness 101 the next day. Apparently the headmistress took it as a personal failure that this had happened and informed them that their guardians would be coming in over the next few days to deal with them.

"Furthermore if anyone else was involved, it would be in their best interests to come forward themselves rather than be … found out … by other means." Her warning was clear.

"Now what?" Evie asked nervously as they headed back to the dorms.

"I'll talk to Aziz, Lonnie, and Ben at tourney practice tonight." Jay offered.

"I guess I'll go find Doug." Evie said and headed off to the chemistry labs where she knew Doug would be.

"Guess its Jane and Audrey for me." Mal decided as they parted ways.

Fairy Godmother was not happy when Lonnie, Doug, Audrey, and Aziz came to her later that night. She was even more unhappy when her own daughter sheepishly came into her office first thing the following morning. And by the time Prince Ben showed up the following afternoon she was irate.

"You know I have to tell your parents, Ben." she sighed.

"Please, Fairy Godmother, give me extra detentions or something, anything." Ben begged.

Fairy Godmother could see the worry in the boys face but she shook her head, no.

"Ben, I'm sorry, but I had to let all the other parents know, I can't ignore this. Not this time. I have to tell them. In addition you will not be playing tourney for two weeks."

Ben put his face into his hands and tried not to cry. His father was going to kill him.

.

/

King Adam had once been known as 'The Beast' known for his horrible temper. Queen Belle had managed to tame him, and now he sat calmly with foreign leaders, negotiated stressful treaties, captured all the villains and banished them to the isle. For all it was worth the beast was totally reformed, or at least in public. There was one person however that managed to transform his calm and collected demeanor back into the uncontrolled beast, and that person was Prince Ben. Ben had always been friendly, smart, carefree, and with a good heart, but he also managed to push his father's buttons without really even trying and the results were never ideal.

Ben sat on his bed in his room in the castle and waited. The waiting was the worst part because never really knew just how mad his father was. He hadn't even been told to go to his room, he just knew there was no other option, aside from running away completely, but he figured that really wouldn't help anything. When the door banged open Ben jumped a little and fearfully looked up as he saw his father slam and lock the door behind him. Ben scrambled to his feet and backup against the wall. His father was… growling. This was not good. Ben at 16 was almost fully grown but his father was still much bigger and stronger, and very very frightening even on a good day.

"Dad, I …. " Ben started but faltered as his father glared at him.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to get a phone call from the fairy godmother during treaty negotiations about MY SON, the crown prince of Auradon, drinking, after curfew, on school grounds, WITH A BUNCH OF VILLAINS?!" the Beast roared.

"I'm sorry" Ben whispered just before the beast struck him and he collapsed to the floor. Beast grabbed the boy by the upper arm and pulled him up and over to the bed where he tossed him face down over the edge and proceeded to whip him. Ben screamed, cried, begged as his father's belt, and occasionally even his fist landed on his back until the boy was sure not an inch of him was spared.

After what seemed like an eternity to Ben, the beast stopped and King Adam emerged again, calm, collected. "This will not happen again, Benjamin. If word ever got out about your behavior it would not go well for any of us."

 _If word got out about the way you treated me it'd be even worse._ Ben thought bitterly, but knew better than to say anything, so instead he went with the usual safe reply of "Yes, sir." and he sobbed into his pillow. It was so unfair, his father didn't really care about what he had done, only that he had been caught and how it looked. He tried to sit up but found that he was in far too much pain to even do that, so he lay still and cried himself to sleep.

/

Jasmine sat on the small couch in the little meeting room her lips pressed tightly together so that you could barely see them while Aladdin paced back and forth in front of Jay and Aziz. The two adults had not been happy to hear about Jay when Fairy Godmother called the other day. They had been even more displeased to get a second phone call the following day about Aziz. The boys stood in the middle of the room nervously, neither really knowing what to expect they'd received yet another lecture, it had to be at least the third one and Jay struggled not to roll his eyes and maintain a neutral expression. The guilt he originally felt had long since disappeared and now he just wanted the whole business to be over with.

"Right then, we've decided that neither of you will participate in Tourney for the next two weeks, that means practices and games." Jasmine said.

"But you can't…" Aziz burst out.

"It's not fair!" Jay added.

"Come on, Jaz, tourney?" Aladdin had stopped pacing and looked just as horrified as the boys.

Jasmine gave him a withering glare "United front, Al." she reminded him and Aladdin had the good sense to look remorseful before nodding.

"I'm sorry boys, you'll just have to tell Coach Jenkins that we've pulled you from the team for the next 2 weeks." Aladdin finally said backing up his wifes sentence.

Coach Jenkins wanted to cry when his 4 best players all approached him before practice, still in their school clothes, to let him know that they were all suspended from the team for two weeks.  
"Don't you think you're going to be allowed to get out of shape on me by not working out the next two weeks. Every day there is a practice scheduled you'll be at the track running. Now get out of my sight." the man barked. Jay, Aziz, Lonnie, and Ben groaned at the newest addition, because not playing wasn't bad enough, at least they avoided yet another lecture. Ben was thankful that they didn't have to run today at least, he knew he couldn't do it, he was still too sore from his "discussion" with his father the night before.

/

Evie worried her lip and watched Snows face for any sign of how upset she was. By the looks of it, very.

"What else happened?" Snow asked after a while.

Evie gave her a curious look, why on earth would Snow ask that. Evie sighed and rolled her eyes, which irritated Snow but she didn't say anything about it, "I already told you, we were celebrating Jay's birthday, someone brought a couple bottles and we all drank a bit. Then I went to bed around 2."

"Alone?" Snow asked and Evie bristled at the implication.

"Doug and I made out for a while but that was all."

Snow looked at the girl, she couldn't tell if she was being honest or not. She knew Doug and Evie had left the party together and spent some time together alone, which could mean a number of things happened, or didn't. Snow figured the only thing she could do was ask Fairy Godmother to put the girl on restriction for a while. She and Dopey had agreed that this would probably be the best option at the moment. The little man was ready to strangle his son, if he could have reached his neck, and his opinions of Evie left a lot to be desired. Snow had spent a good portion of the car ride trying to convince the dwarf that banning them from seeing each other altogether would only result in them being more sneaky about it and at long last he agreed that that might be a bit harsh.

Although Evie wasn't really thrilled with the outcome she felt it was at least fair, she had heard about Jay and the others being suspended from the tourney team either by their parents/guardians like Jay and Aziz or by the school (Ben and Lonnie) and then on top of that Coach assigning hours of running. Evie felt like it was indeed a double punishment so she wasn't about to complain about hers.

/

Mal on the other hand still hadn't heard a word from Queen Leah and King Stefan and the silence was maddening. By the time Friday rolled around Mal decided she needed to seek out Audrey, she found her in her room playing around with a new makeup kit she had gotten.

"Audrey, can we talk?" Mal asked from the door.

Audrey looked up surprised, the girls had come to a sort of understanding over the last break, but neither would go so far as to say they were friends. Still curiosity about what the young villainess wanted got the better of her and she nodded.

"Your parents were told about the party right?" Mal asked, feeling a bit silly.

Audrey just nodded. Everyone's parents were notified they'd been told it would happen.

"Did they get mad at you? Or do anything?" the purple fae asked not sure if that was going to be too personal or not.

The princess threw herself back onto her bed, "Oh, Mal, it was awful, Daddy took away my credit cards, every single one of them! And Mommy said she wouldn't buy me the new dress I had wanted. I even cried. She gave in a bit and sent that make up kit, which was nice but I really don't need that as much as the dress."

Mal wasn't sure what to say to that, she knew Audrey was spoiled and this clearly upset her, but she hadn't realized just how superficial Audrey was. "Oh." was about all she could say in reply.

"What about you?"

Mal looked a little uncomfortable, "That's why I asked. Leah and Stefan haven't said anything to me at all. Everyone else heard from their parents within a day, and it's been three now and they haven't said or done anything. I'm just not sure what to think, are they so mad they won't talk to me, or do they not care about what happened, or are they just waiting to fuck with my head?" the girl rattled it off so fast that it took Audrey a moment for her brain to process everything.

"I'll ask my mom about it, ok? But Grammy is pretty good about the silent treatment when she's really mad. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what she's doing."

Mal groaned loudly, her mother used to do that, she was the best at the silent treatment until Mal would beg and plead and promise to do anything just to have her mother talk to her again. It was hard enough knowing what was going on, but this… this was new, she barely knew Leah and Stefan and somehow she had the feeling begging and pleading wouldn't be the penance they wanted.

"Thanks Audrey." Mal said sadly as she headed out to her own room, she didn't really want to be on restriction like Evie or anything else but anything had to be better than the silent treatment, or worse yet learning that Leah and Stefan didn't even care enough to punish her at all.

 **thank you for reading, and please leave a review!**


	26. Mama Bear

**Anna022406 - He sure is! But like so many has gotten away with it for years.**

 **EroSlackerMicha - or maybe the author didn't know what to do about Mal either. hahaha thanks for your review.**

 **preciouslittletoonette- I know, how could anyone do that to our Bennyboo**

 **bookreader282- wow, thank you so much for all your kind reviews. I'm thrilled that you've enjoyed my story so far.**

 **As always thank you to everyone that has favored, followed, or reviewed. It really gives one motivation to write when you learn others are enjoying your stories.**

 **I hope you all like this next chapter, and please leave me a review or PM.**

Saturday morning found Carlos head first in a gigantic pot that he had to half crawl in to scrub the bottom of. He and Mal were the only ones small enough to get in to the bottom and she wasn't about to do it. Dude barked loudly into the pot and the echoes amplified the bark; Carlos hurried out covering his ears "Shhhh, not so loud." he scolded the dog. "Mal, aren't you going to help us?" he asked when he noticed the purple haired girl pretending to sweep the floor.

"I'm supervising."

Carlos rolled his eyes and climbed back into the pot.

Jay threw down his rag that he had been using to clean the stove and went over to Mal, "come on, this will get done a lot faster if you actually helped us." he crossed his arms and looked down at her with a look that said he wasn't happy she wasn't helping.

Mal threw up her hands " Ok, fine. Evie what do you need me to do?"

Evie looked over from the stack of dishes she was washing. Evie was amazing at organizing and figuring out who was good at what task. She looked around and pointed to the far corner where a pantry was that was in complete shambles. Mal mock saluted and started to organize the area.

"We need some music" Mal whined about 2 minutes later and the others just shook their heads. Music would certainly be more fun, but they all knew they wouldn't get the work done if they were dancing to whatever was on the radio all day. Fairy Godmother and Mrs. Radcliffe had brought the 4 teens down to the Auradon Prep Kitchens at the ungodly hour of 5am and told them to make it spotless. When they thought they were almost done around 9, the used breakfast dishes and cooking pans magically appeared along with Fairy Godmother. She gave them a disappointed look as she looked around the mess, "I thought it was clear that this needs to be cleaned up before you can leave?"

Four jaws dropped at that because it HAD been nearly done.

"But Fairy Godmother, this JUST showed up." Mal protested.

Godmother nodded knowingly "yes that does happen after meals, well best hurry, lunch dishes will arrive around 1."

And with that she turned to go and the four exhausted teens just stood there for several minutes. They weren't exactly ready to cry, but if they had been a few years younger they surely would have. It was good Carlos and Evie were there because if it were only up to Mal and Jay nothing would have been done, both Carlos and Evie had grown up with chores being routine and for Carlos he probably wouldn't have flinched at the idea of having to do the whole kitchen alone. Evie had to show Mal how to wash dishes and Carlos instructed Jay on how to properly clean the ovens.

Shortly before lunch the 4 managed to get the kitchens cleaned up to standards to be released back to their rooms for the remainder of the day. No one complained at that, they were far too hungry and tired to want anything but food, showers, and their beds.

/

Later that afternoon:

"Fairy Godmother, I simply do not know what to do about the girl." Queen Leah said in frustration. She had never really raised Aurora, and only had Audrey for school holidays, and she never had to punish the girl, her parents did that. In short Queen Leah had no idea how to be a parent.

FG nodded, "well I think the trick is to find the child's currency, figure out what matters to them. For example Jay loves playing tourney, so Aladdin and Jasmine took that privilege away from him for a couple weeks."

Leah sighed, "she has no currency. She's not involved in anything we could take away from her, she's not interested in acquiring stuff or spending time with anyone, and I seriously doubt that grounding her would do much good."

Leah's first instincts were to just completely ignore who ever wronged her, but Stefan kept insisting that they had to confront the issue at some point, and the sooner the better. When FG called and expressed her concern that out of all the children involved in the party and drinking, Mal had been the only one not even contacted it spurred Leah into coming in for a meeting.

"Where is she?"

"In her room."

Leah nodded and went to go find Mal. She still hadn't figured out an appropriate punishment, but a long winded lecture was her speciality.

Several hours later an even more exhausted Mal went back to her room.

"Well? What happened?" Evie said as she looked up from a dress she was working on.

"She didn't shut up. For what must have been at least two hours. I thought my mother could lecture, but I was so wrong. I'm also supposed to research and write an essay about why it's a bad idea for teenagers to drink." " Mal chucked for a moment "I think Carlos got the easiest punishment, his was over in less than 15 minutes." she stated as she threw herself onto her bed.

Evie looked at the other girl in shock, "Mal, he couldn't sit for 2 days, I hardly think that's getting off easy."

"No, I suppose not." Mal agreed after remembering just how bad the after effects were and decided to stop complaining about her lecture and essay.

/

"Ahem. Children…" Fairy Godmother tapped her pointer on the podium at the front of the room trying to get her small classes attention after several failed attempts she finally raised her voice "CHILDREN."

The four VKs were so shocked to hear Fairy Godmother above their chattering that they instantly stopped what they were doing and looked up in a mix of surprise and apprehension, Carlos dropped the chair he was leaning back in back to its proper position, Evie sat up straight, Mal at least glanced up before returning to her drawing, and Jay let go of Carlos' shirt (he had been a second away from yanking the smaller boy onto the desk).

Fairy Godmother sighed, after 10 weeks she had hoped their behavior in her class would have improved more than it had but for the most part the other teachers seemed satisfied with their improvement over the weeks.

"Thank you, please pay attention I really don't appreciate having to raise my voice," FG gently scolded "first, thank you all for the excellent job you did cleaning the kitchen on Saturday." The four teens grimaced, they were still a bit sore from the hours of scrubbing and cleaning they had done.

"Second, as you may not be aware last friday was the end of the first marking period. So I have your quarterly report cards for you to see. Copies have also been sent to your guardians here in Auradon as well as your parents on the Isle." Fairy Godmother explained as she handed envelopes to each of the teens. Report cards weren't exactly a foreign concept to them but everything about Auradon Prep and Dragon Hall was completely different. On the isle their parents might glance at it, criticize something about it and then send them on their way, if they were lucky with only a cuff to the ear. None of the teens thought their parents would care one bit about how they were doing in Auradon, and in fact were a little apprehensive of their parents reactions to positive comments on their report cards. If they ever saw their parents again that is, they were after all supposed to be evil and "plays well with others" and "follows directions" weren't exactly things their parents would be proud of.

Then there was the whole 'how will my new guardian react'. They'd had their new guardians in Auradon for exactly 3 weeks now and there was a lot they still didn't know about what to expect, none of them had ever even had a discussion about grades they had been to busy getting to know each other and finding out that having a party after curfew with alcohol was something they'd at least think twice about before trying again.

Evie opened up her envelope and eagerly looked at the grades. Straight A's in every class, all the comments said that she was a good student, and how happy they were to have her in class. The blue haired princess couldn't help but smile to herself. She was smart; she was more than what her mother told her she could be, she had also worked hard on her homework and studied and was quite pleased that she did so well.

The fae opened her envelope and read it to herself, except for art which she had an A in all her other classes were solid B's. Most comments said something like "not working to full potential" and "is often distracted in class" probably in reference to her drawing while she listened to lectures. Mal rolled her eyes Leah would probably lecture her about how a proper young lady needs perfect grades or some other such nonsense.

Jay sighed as he opened his up, he really struggled with school, the reading comprehension class was helping, but he still felt behind and lost most of the time. His report card mirrored his own feelings with C's for all but PE and goodness class and comments like "Good effort". Back home his father probably would have had it just tossed back at him and told to go find something for the shop. He kind of felt like Aladdin would be ok with the grades, they were good enough to stay on the Tourney team but Aziz had made comments about Jasmine being a stickler when it came to school. By the end of the week Jay would learn how true that was when Jasmine insisted he have a tutor, he had tried arguing against it but shut up quickly when she said he could kiss the Tourney team goodbye permanently if he kept it up.

Carlos just stared at the envelope sitting in front of him for a while, he had no idea what to expect and felt a little nervous about it. At the moment it was both perfect and horrible and he knew once he opened it that would change. 'Schrodinger's Report Card' he thought to himself. He finally sighed and opened it. English, Math, and Programming all were A's with positive comments. Fairy Godmother had given him a B in Goodness class and said he had put in a good effort but that there was some room to improve. Biology surprised him, a D. He had gotten A's on all the homework, tests, and labs that he'd gotten back so he wasn't sure how that added up to almost failing. "Missing Lab Assignments" was the only comment. Carlos sighed, he'd go talk to Mr. Boyle after class got out to understand the poor grade. And then finally Auradon History, a big fat F and comments like 'disruptive, hands in poor work, and attitude needs improvement' . He stuffed the report card back in the envelope, grabbed his bag, and ran out of the classroom while the others just watched him leave.

"Oh dear." Fairy Godmother said looking worried.

Jay was about to follow but Mal shook her head no. If Carlos wanted to talk he wouldn't have run off.

/

It had been a long day and it wasn't even over yet, the bell signaling the end of biology rang. Carlos slowly packed up his bag and trugged up to the front of the classroom.

"Mr. Boyle?" he said shyly, unsure how to start. "Got a minute?"

Mr. Boyle stopped what he was doing and looked up at the freckled face in front of him. "Ah, yes Carlos, I was wondering when you'd come see me. I assume it's about your grade."

Carlos nodded and gulped nervously, "I was wondering why it was so low, all the papers I've gotten back were A's."

The man nodded. "You missed 3 labs. Now let me explain" he said as he saw Carlos was about to interrupt him, "Auradon education standards require 35 labs completed to pass the class. So that means even if you got a 100% on everything but had only 34 labs done you would not get credit for the year. With me so far?"

The boy nodded, still confused what this had to do with anything.

"I've had in the past, students that did exceptional work and did not pass because of the lab portion, so I have adopted a policy that is if you are missing even 1 lab, you get a 0 for all of them until they're all turned in. Otherwise, you see, you would have a B+ in this class and wouldn't even have realized there was an issue."

"But I didn't know about that." Carlos argued.

Mr. Boyle pointed to a poster on the side of the room that very clearly explained the lab policy, Carlos had never noticed it before, but there it was.

"Can I make up the labs? "

"Of course. I have sessions every other saturday morning for students to make up labs or get extra help. Once the missing labs are turned in the other ones will be reinstated. See you this Saturday then Carlos? 8am?"

Carlos nodded and smiled, 8 am was earlier than he prefered but at least he had a chance to fix this he thought as he walked out the classroom. And that's when he realized that one of the labs he had to do was dissecting the frog and he felt like he might be sick.

/

Carlos was beginning to wonder if finding himself in Anitas office was going to be a regular thing. He studied his shoelaces, mentally following the path the knots took to distract himself from the fact that Anita was standing in front of him looking madder than a march hare.

"Well?" she asked.

Carlos glanced up, saw her face and quickly looked back down and shrugged.

"A shrug is not an answer, Carlos. Why did you run out of class yesterday and go missing for 4 hours?."

"I was upset." the boy mumbled.

Anita sighed, "Yes, I figured that much out. But why?" she waited again but received no reply, "is it the report card?" she finally asked.

Carlos nodded.

"Well I can't say I'm thrilled with your Biology and History grades. What happened? Biology first."

"I'm missing a couple labs, but I talked to Mr. Boyle today and he said I can make them up on the weekends." Carlos explained.

Anita nodded, she knew the man's lab policy and was pleased Carlos had already taken care of finding out how to fix it. "And History?."

"Mr. Willerstein hates me." Carlos answered flatly.

"I'm sure that's not…"

"It IS true! He only ever yells at me even if other kids are doing the same stuff. I AM trying. And no matter how hard I work on the essays he still fails them. Jane and I even swapped papers once and he still gave me a D and she got a B."

"You did WHAT?!" Anita couldn't believe he and Jane would do that.

"Fairy Godmother already knows about it, but it was to prove a point, that he'll fail me cause its me and not for my work." Carlos was quick to explain. He pulled out his folder and handed an ungraded copy of the Cinderellasburg paper to Anita.

"This is a copy of a paper I handed in, what grade would you say it's worth?"

Anita read it over and looked up "This is well researched and thought out, you backup all your arguments with facts, I'd give this an A"

"Mr. Willerstein failed it." Carlos said angrily.

Anita sighed again, "Have you tried talking to him about it?"

Carlos looked at the woman like she grew an extra head, "No, I don't want him to punish me again."

"He wouldn't…"

"Yes! He would!" Carlos interrupted with such conviction that it surprised the woman.

"Alright, come on."

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to go talk to Mr. Willerstein, right now, together, to get this all sorted out and figure out what you need to do to get that grade up."

Carlos paled and grudgingly followed Anita out of the room, 'this was not going to go well' he thought.

/

"Mrs. Radcliffe," Mr. Willerstein said warmly, "and Mr. De Vil… what a … surprise." the man said doing his best not to sneer at the boy as Anita ushered Carlos into the mans classroom.

"I hope it's not a bad time Mr. Willerstein, but we're here to discus Carlos' grade in your class." Anita smiled warmly at her colleague.

"Not at all, please come in. Have a seat." the man waited till both his visitors sat down. "Now how can I help?."

Carlos wanted to punch the man in the face, he'd never been this civil in class. He opted to cross his arms, slouch in his chair, and glare at the man.

"Well first can you explain your comments on the report card, you say he's 'disruptive, hands in poor work, and attitude needs improvement' yet all his other teachers say he is a good student. So I'd like to know what's happening in your class that's causing the issues."

Mr. Willerstein nodded his head understandingly and glanced at Carlos. "Well to start he is late for class at least once a week…"

"By like a second! And you never say anything to anyone else!" Carlos interrupted.

"Mr. De Vil, we are not discussing your classmates right now, we are discussing you. Late is late, be it one second or 50 minutes." The man said sternly, "When I call on him in class his answers are sarcastic or it is clear he hasn't read the assigned reading…"

"What assigned reading?" Carlos interrupted again not having any idea what the man was talking about.

Mr. Willerstein ignored Carlos and kept talking to Mrs. Radcliffe, "Also interrupting my lecture with smart aleck comments."

"That's cause your information is wrong."

The man raised his eyebrows and gestured with his hand towards Carlos as if to say "see what I mean" . Carlos wanted to kick himself for proving his teachers point, he was starting to lose his temper about it so he decided to stare at the wall and try to ignore the whole conversation.

"Continuing on, almost daily there is a disruption of some kind, interrupting, talking to a neighbor, he brought Dude to class once, falling asleep, or just a defiant or surly attitude. Carlos and that corner over there have become well acquainted so far this year."

Carlos stole a glance at Anita, she didn't look happy, Carlos was fuming the way Mr. Willerstein made it sound he was the worst kid in the school, but the man was the one that always picked on him, and now he was spinning it to make it his fault.

"The corner is a bit childish for high schoolers, wouldn't you agree?" Mrs. Radcliffe asked.

"Normally yes, but it seems to work the best and at least he's not disruptive for a few minutes. The only other thing that seems to make any impression is physical persuasion and I don't enjoy paddling the boy."

At that Carlos snorted, and the two adults just looked at him as if they were actually going to let him speak, he knew better and looked back at the wall as if it was fascinating to him.

"How many times?" Anita asked.

"A couple." the man admitted.

"Five." Carlos spoke up. The adults once again looked at the boy. "Five times." he said again hotly.

Anita looked at her colleague "what could he possibly have done FIVE TIMES that resulted in that?" she only knew about the most recent event, and that punishment was reserved for extreme cases.

"Carlos, would you like to answer? If I did my job right you'll at least have remembered the reasons, although I've stopped hoping that it will deter you from future events."

Carlos took a breath "The first time you didn't like what I wrote in my paper on Cinderellasburg. The second time for disagreeing with you during your lecture when you told me to be quiet. Third time for starting a debate about the relevancy of the crown. Forth, for pointing out you were wrong about the Evil Stepmother and apparently I'm not allowed to do that; but you were still wrong" Carlos quickly added that last part, "and the last time because I had a hangover and fell asleep in class you also claimed I was late, but wasn't" Carlos spat out angrily.

Anita just sat there shocked to hear this, the whole situation was far worse than she had imagined she needed to talk to Carlos alone to understand his side of it, she could tell that if she had the boy talk now it would just end up making it worse.

"Well, I think Carlos and I have some things to discuss regarding his behavior." Anita said,

Carlos' jaw dropped open, "Wait, don't tell me you just believe everything he says! He picks on me constantly and no one else. This isn't fair!" Carlos finally lost it and couldn't hold it together anymore, he jumped up from his seat and ran out the door, letting the door slam shut on its own.

Anita got up and yelled for him down the hall but he was already gone. Mr. Willerstein stood there smugly believing he had fully proven his point about the boy. Anita rounded on him as soon as the door closed. "You know, Paul, a little understanding about Carlos' situation would go along way. That child is brilliant and you refuse to give him a chance… no, MY turn to talk now, I've heard from the other students how you pick at him until he snaps at you. I've read that report on Cinderellasburg that he wrote and it's an A paper, not a failing one, and its deplorable that you punished him for it simply because of your personal beliefs about villains. That attitude he has that you're complaining about is what kept him alive on that cursed isle for 14 years, it's not going to just disappear in a few months."

"I will not coddle him, he needs to behave and be respectful."

"I agree, but you also need to be fair to him." Anita looked fiercely at the other teacher "And if you have any more issues that you think is severe enough to require a trip over your desk, I expect to be notified FIRST. I will determine if its justified or not. I saw the aftermath of your handiwork last week and you went too far. "

"Maybe the boy will learn not to get drunk. " Mr. Willerstein shrugged.

"I mean it, Paul, you don't lay a finger on him without my consent to the punishment."

The man nodded, he didn't dare disagree the way Anita was shooting daggers at him.

"Now, tell me what Carlos can do to bring up his grade." Anita said calmly.


	27. You get what you earn

Jay sat at a table in the library, he had pulled his beanie down over his eyes and plopped his forehead into the middle of the English book he was supposed to be working on. This had been the longest hour of his life.

"Jay, come on, we need to work on this. You're still not getting it." Colin, son of Cogsworth, pleaded.

Jay ignored the boy who was only a few months older than him but two grades ahead in school.

 _I could kick his ass_. Jay thought but then realized that really wasn't saying much. Colin sighed loudly "Listen, our time is up anyway for today. But if you're not willing to work on this tomorrow I'm going to call Jasmine and tell her the deal is off. I'm not wasting my time if you don't want to learn. And between you and me, if I quit, she's going to pull you from the team."

Colin walked off while Jay clenched his fists he really wanted to smash something right now. Colin was right, Jasmine told him he needed to work with a tutor or no Tourney. He just hadn't realized his tutor would be a little snitch too.

"What was all that about?" Carlos asked as he and Aziz walked over to the table and pulled out homework to work on.

"It's nothing" mumbled Jay.

Aziz raised an eyebrow, "yeah sure, nothing, whatever you say." he chuckled as he looked across the library to another table where Evie and Doug were studying "chemistry" apparently through each others mouths "think they're doing it yet?" he asked as if it was anyone's business.

Jay and Carlos looked where Aziz was; Jay smiled mischievously "I don't know, you wanna ask, Carlos?"

The freckled boy blushed a deep crimson, "Shut up, Jay" he growled and Jay laughed loudly.

Back on the isle when Evie had just turned 14 and was beginning to learn the value of her newly acquired assets she liked to play around a little with the various boys who showed her interest Carlos had been brazen enough to ask the blue haired girl about it. At just 11, he had been at that annoying preteen age where he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut and at times Jay still wondered how the three of them hadn't snapped his scrawny little neck during those few years. It was the one and only time Evie had ever started a fight with anyone and no one dared ask her about her exploits again.

Azis looked between the two other boys confused "I seem to have missed something." he said casually hoping they'd fill him in.

Jay snickered and Carlos scowled at him, "Carlos made the mistake of asking Evie about that once and she kicked the shit out of him." Jay supplied.

Aziz looked at Carlos incredulously "Really?" he asked, Carlos was small but he was still tough.

"I was 11." the younger boy said defensively and with a bit of a pout that made him look younger than he was.

Aziz still looked surprised, "I didn't think you guys fought, at least not with each other."

"Of course we do, not as much here, but on the isle you settle differences physically, even among allies." Jay explained.

" 'not as much'?" Aziz asked, "so you still do? Fight, I mean."

Carlos shrugged and looked a little guilty, he generally tried to avoid it but he and Jay had gotten into a few scuffles, usually over something stupid like who got to pick the video game or movie that night or who got the extra piece of food if there was any left; Jay always won unless he really didn't care and just wanted to make Carlos fight for it. He unconsciously rubbed a large bruise on his upper arm from last nights 'disagreement'.

"So do you fight with the girls too? Do they fight each other?" Aziz couldn't help but be curious, the four VKs always seemed to get along well, but he realized that behind closed doors they might be very different kids than what they showed to Auradon and he was intrigued.

Jay chuckled at his foster brother, "Evie avoids it at all costs, on the isle she and Mal had a couple scuffles, but nothing here that I know of. Mal likes to spar though so we head to the gym for a few rounds. But sometimes we do that just for fun." Carlos rolled his eyes at that last bit Mal and Jay beat the stuffing out of each other at least three times a week, for fun or otherwise, he didn't see the difference.

Aziz couldn't hide his amusement at the new information about the four peculiar students. "So, um what was up with Colin? He seemed a little, uh, frustrated." Aziz decided to change topics.

Jays smile vanished immediately, "He's not the only one frustrated. Jasmine hired him to help me with some of my classes."

Aziz nodded "He's a really good tutor, sometimes he helps me out too. But for now, maybe I can help?" he offered and pulled Jays book over so he could see what they were working on.

/

Evie was enjoying Doug, his lips were surprisingly soft and his mouth tasted a little bit like coffee but in a good way, he gently brushed his fingertips along her arm and she shivered involuntarily.

"Ahem" someone clears their throat in the near vicinity to where she and Doug were "studying" Evie tried to ignore it but senses that who ever it was did it to get their attention and wasn't going away. Annoyed the blue haired girl pulled away from Doug and looked up.

"Snow!" she gasped in surprise as she looked up to see Snow White standing there, one eyebrow raised expectantly. "What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk."

Evie looked at Doug who nodded "I'll see you tomorrow" he whispered as he squeezed her hand. While Evie quickly packed up her books Snow handed the boy a tissue, apparently he had more than a smidge of Evies Lipstick on his face.

"Evie, you know better than to make out in the library." Snow scolded, although she didn't sound overly mad, after all she'd been 16 before too.

The girl gave her a sheepish grin, "sorry"

Snow lead Evie outside to her little car, and they drove off to the little village Belle was from that Evie had admired so much on her first trip to the cottage b&b. After finding a table at a bistro Evie's curiosity finally won out "So, what did you want to talk about?" hoping desperately it wasn't Doug.

Snow smiled and handed the girl an envelope. Evie opened it to find a card with flowers printed on it.

" _Evie, I know the last several months have been quite an adjustment for you. A new way of life, new people, new school, and new expectations, it couldn't have been easy but you're doing great. I am so proud of you for your hard work in school. Getting all A's at Auradon Prep isn't easy no matter how smart someone is, it takes hard work. I'm so very proud of you for doing your best. Love Snow_." and along with the message was a gift card to the local fabric supply store.

Evie looked up at Snow with tears in her eyes, it took her a few moments to regain her composure, "You're proud of me?" she asked incredulously.

Snow smiled and squeezed Evie's hand, "Of course I am, I'm very proud of you. You worked hard for those grades and I think you should be rewarded for them."

Evie couldn't wrap her head around the idea of being rewarded for doing what was expected anyway. She had always done what she needed to do to avoid punishment, not that she thought Snow would have been too hard on her if she didn't do well. And having Snow say she was proud of her, even after finding her and Doug in the library like that, Evie was so shocked that she just started to cry. No one had ever said they were proud of her before. No one ever cared if she did well in her classes or not, mother only told her where she fell short.

Snow was a bit concerned that Evie suddenly started to cry right there in the middle of the restaurant, she silently slipped onto the bench next to Evie and pulled her into a hug so that Evie could finish her cry.  
"Evie, please don't cry."  
"It's just that.. No one ever told me they were proud of me before." the girl sniffed while quickly trying to compose herself as the waiter brought them their soups.

Evie couldn't help but smile all through dinner as she and Snow talked about fashion, her classes, Doug (without the annoying lecture on propriety), and the inn. Then they headed to the fabric store so Evie could use her gift certificate.

"Thank you so much. For everything." Evie gave Snow a warm hug after their evening out and headed up to her room to put her new fabrics away.

/

Mal sat on her bed, stared at the laptop screen and narrowed her eyes at the email she was reading. Queen Leah wanted her to come over for dinner on Friday. She really didn't want to go and was trying to think up an excuse to get out of it. She narrows her eyes as Evie enters their room, humming of all things, it makes Mal cringe inwardly at how _happy_ Evie is, All. The. Fucking. Time.

"Where'd you go?" she asks with a hint of disapproval and annoyance mixed together.

Evie is too happy to notice Mal's mood, "Snow took me out for dinner and to the fabric store." she exclaimed happily as she put away some of the fabrics "Look at this one, isn't it just gorgeous!" Evie held up a length of royal blue organza to her body and looked down at it as if it were already a dress, "and guess what, Snow did it because she said she was proud of me, for getting all A's! Can you believe that?!"

"That's great E." Mal said flatly, her eyes flashed green with jealousy. She didn't care about the fabric, obvi, but she would have liked for someone to be proud of her. Of course, she knew Leah and Stefan wouldn't be for a B average. She sighed and lay back on the bed thinking. She didn't usually feel sorry for herself but it was really frustrating being the only one not really getting attention. Then again Leah DID just email her. Mal sat back up, her mind made up, "I'll be happy to come." she typed and hit send before she had time to change her mind.

Evie put down the latest fabric she was holding, a rose colored chiffon, "Mal, what's wrong?".

Mal rolled her eyes "Nothing."

"Whatever it is, I know it's not nothing. Come on, please tell me." Evie sat down next to Mal. Mal shook her head and turned away, she didn't want to 'talk about her feelings' right now, what she wanted was to numb everything, why did they have to screw up so badly with Jays birthday, getting a drink would be far more difficult now.

"I'm going for a walk" Mal stated and was out the door before Evie could decide to follow. Mal found herself back by the enchanted lake, it was soothing somehow and if she was completely honest with herself she was hoping she might run into Ben again. She wasn't disappointed.

"Hey stranger." Ben smiled at the purple haired fairy as she approached the rock he was sitting on.

Mal gave him a coy smile "Mind if I join you?"

/

"No, I won't do it!"

"Carlos, you are acting like a child." Anita scolded as she stood in front of the TV while Carlos strained to look past her and continue with his game. He was giving his best effort to ignore the tall woman in front of him but it really wasn't working that well. Anita narrowed her eyes spun around and pulled the plug of the TV.

"HEY!" Yelled Carlos, "I was playing that!"

On the other side of the room Jay was trying very hard to not laugh out loud, he'd never seen Carlos be so impertinent and he couldn't help be curious as to the outcome of this little scene playing out in front of him and he was trying desperately to be as invisible as possible so that Anita didn't notice him and kick him out of the room.

"Carlos, if you don't get your history grade up, you'll have to go to summer school for it." Anita tried to reason.

The white haired boy looked up at that he didn't mind school for the most part "Will there be other kids here for classes too?" it would be weird without Jay, Mal, and Evie he thought, knowing that his friend would be with their new guardians for all the school holidays.

"Auradon Prep doesn't have summer school classes, you'd have to take it at the local high school near us." Anita tried to explain. Carlos seemed unphased "Its four hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks." Carlos still didn't seem daunted.

Anita sighed "Mr. Willerstein is the teacher at the local school in the summer." That got the boys attention and Carlos's head snapped up.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Carlos groaned he had been all too ready to say "sign me up" in hopes of skipping history for the rest of the year.

Jay bit his tongue hard to keep from saying anything as he heard Carlos let loose a string of obscenities that would have made Cruella blush, well maybe not, but with Mrs. Radcliffe right there it was clear Carlos had lost his damn mind.

Anita marched right into the bathroom and started looking around for something, Carlos glanced back at Jay with a confused look and the older boy shrugged. It didn't take long for the woman to find what she was looking for, a new bar of soap. "Open your mouth." she ordered.

"What? No!" whined Carlos as Anita gave him a dangerous look that resulted in the boy obeying.

"Two minutes. And if I ever hear any of those words out of you again the next time it will be five. Jay stop laughing." Anita turned on the older boy who had now buried his face in a pillow in amusement at his younger friends expense. Anita glanced at her watch to keep time while Carlos squirmed uncomfortably for what he thought was forever before the bar was removed and he ran to the bathroom to rinse.

Carlos emerged from the bathroom, his face shamefaced red. Anita crossed her arms and gave a significant look "Now then, in order to avoid summer school, you will meet with Mr. Willerstein twice a week after your normal classes until you have successfully brought your grade up to passing. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes'm." Carlos whispered.

"Good, now go to bed." Anita ordered gently and ruffled Carlos's hair affectionately. "Good night boys."

 **Please leave a review.**


	28. Frogs and Brownies

**warning: mentions of drugs and child abuse, just a little**

Mal picked at the supper in front of her, some sort of fancy fish with vegetables on the side, it tastes pretty good, but Mal just doesn't feel like eating. She put her head on her hand.

"Mal? Aren't you hungry dear?" Queen Leah asks. Mal's head snaps up and her eyes quickly focus on the older woman to her left. She quickly straightens up and sits up properly. "I… I'm sorry, it's very good." and quickly scoops up a bite and shoves it in her mouth. Leah presses her lips forming a thin line.

"We got your report card earlier this week." Leah with a nonchalant air.

Mal quickly swallows what's in her mouth, not wanting to be scolded for talking with her mouth full, again, "Yes, Fairy Godmother mentioned that you would get it."

"While your grades weren't bad by any stretch, that average won't get you into the top universities here in Auradon…..

Mal tuned out the rest as she ate her dinner, going back to the dorms couldn't come fast enough. Maybe getting attention was overrated she thought as she viciously stabbed a carrot and glared at it.

/

Carlos nervously paced in front of the main doors to Auradon Prep and checked the time, it was almost curfew, where the hell was Mal? She said she'd be back by now. He chewed on his thumbnail as he anxiously scanned the drive up to the school. Finally a fancy town car drove up and Mal stepped out and started heading up the stairs.  
"Mal," hissed Carlos getting her attention "I need your help."

Mal raised an eyebrow and followed after the white haired boy around the side of the building.

"Carlos. Stop. What's going on?"

"I'm supposed to do that lab tomorrow morning. The frog one."

"So?" Mal crossed her arms, unimpressed with being led off for school work.

Carlos shuddered, "I want to let the frogs out before they kill them for the lab. I need your help."

"Of all the ridiculous…" Mal trailed off when she saw the desperation on the freckled face and pleading brown eyes. "Why didn't you ask Jay or Evie?"

"Jay is having victory pizza with the tourney team. And Evie said no." Carlos pouted a little at this last bit. "Please Mal. I can't reach the window myself."

"Fine."

Carlos gave her a big grin. "Thanks you're the best!"

When they reached the biology room Mal used her magic to open the window then Carlos jumped up to the ledge and pulled himself up enough to reach the terrarium and pull it over so that the frogs could leap out the window.

Mal let out a little squeak as a couple of frogs jumped towards her. Carlos rolled his eyes "come on, it's past curfew."

The fairy let out a little laugh, "well for YOU it is. I still have 45 minutes." she smirked rubbing it in that she had the advantage just cause she was older. Carlos huffed at her and they headed towards their rooms.

"Mr. De Vil, you're late." Mrs. Potts scolded as she saw him heading towards his dorm.

Carlos gave the stout woman his best puppy dog eyes and a sad pout "I'm sorry, I was just waiting for Mal to get back and lost track of time."

The woman smiled at him with a little chuckle, "You're not fooling anyone." she said with a bit of amusement in her voice and then added a little sterner "Right to bed with you."

Carlos frowned but nodded, he wanted to stay up and hang out with Jay, but going to bed was better than a detention he thought as he let out a little yawn.

/

Carlos entered the biology classroom with one other kid that also needed to make up the lab, he's not sure who he is though, they've never spoken before and take their usual seats at the lab benches as Mr. Boyle heads to the storage room and comes back a moment later with two trays and sets them in front of both boys. Carlos swallows hard and looks down at the still frog, his mind races followed by his heart. This wasn't supposed to happen, he had let the frogs go how did this one get here. He makes no move to start the lab and just sits there and stares trying to push down the impending panic attack.

"Oh no! " he hears Mr. Boyle cry out and snaps his head up to watch Mr. Boyle carefully pick up the knocked over terrarium.

"Whats wrong?" the other boy asks looking concerned at how stressed out Mr. Boyle seems to be all of a sudden.

"The AP Bio student's had their magical frogs here and it looks like they all got out last night. Oh this isn't good. Boys work on your lab, I need to go get Fairy Godmother." the man said as he hurried out of the room.

' _Magical_ frogs? _AP bio?_ Oh no. Fuck fuck fuck' Carlos cries in his head.

Fairy Godmother tuts and shakes her head as she inspects the terrarium and Carlos's heart races again.

"Carlos!" Mr. Boyle says, his voice is harsh and Carlos winces "I don't come in on Saturday mornings and waste MY FREE TIME so that you can sit there and NOT DO THE LAB. Get going."

Carlos picks up the scalpel and moves to start but he can't bring himself to do it. His hand shakes and he drops the knife before shoving the tray away a little harder than he wanted to sending it crashing to the floor, taking lab equipment with it.

"I don't get paid enough to deal with this." sighs Mr. Boyle who is not having a very good Saturday himself. "Detention Monday. Clean this up and get out."

"But sir, I have to meet with Willerstein after classes Monday."

"Then you will come here after."

"Yes, sir" Carlos muttered as he carefully picked up the tray, frog, and other equipment off of the floor and quickly left.

/

"You couldn't have finished that lab already." Evie said when Carlos burst into the girls room 10 minutes later. The blue haired girl was sitting on her bed laying out fabric swatches to see which combinations she liked the best but quickly pushed it aside when the younger boy practically tackled her. Evie gently wrapped her arms around him and pulled him almost onto her lap as he started to cry into her shoulder.

Mal looked on from across the room, she raised her eyebrow questioningly and Evie responded with a look that clearly said she had no idea what was wrong but guessed it had something to do with the lab. Mal decided it was best she leave, she didn't do well with crying and would probably have ended up yelling at Carlos to cork it.

"Pup, what happened?" Evie said as she stroked Carlos' hair and rubbed his back and waited for him to calm down.

"I can't do it, I just can't do that lab." He wiped his eyes and nose on a spare piece of fabric. Evie scowled as that was one of her samples but didn't say anything. "Everytime I try I just see all the animals mother made me skin and I just can't." he continued.

Evie thought back to just before they had been told they would be going to Auradon, Carlos' beloved cat (Beelzebub) had had an unfortunate accident and Cruella thought the fur would make a lovely accent to one of her purses. Evie always believed that "accident" had been Cruella herself, but hadn't been able to prove it, not that it mattered. Carlos hadn't been quite the same for several weeks after Cruella had forced him to skin his own pet cat. Understandable really and Evie kicked herself for not realizing this earlier.

"Pup, why don't we just explain about the lab. Mrs. Radcliffe seems like she'd be reasonable and sympathetic about it. "

Carlos looked up at her uncertainly, adults, reasonable, and sympathetic were all words that had never gone together in his entire 14 years. He really wasn't sure that those things ever did go together. Eventually Carlos agreed but then remembered that Anita had gone home for the weekend and wouldn't be back till Tuesday for classes.

/

Mal headed out to the lake, it was Saturday and she was pretty sure she'd be able to find Ben. The young prince and Mal had taken to meeting there on a semi regular basis lately. After Jay's birthday disaster both the purple haired fairy and the young prince found that they were enjoying each other's company more and more. Ben still hadn't broken up with Audrey, but that was ok Mal thought, because it wasn't like that with her and Ben. Not one bit. They were just friends.

"Hey!" Ben greeted Mal with a huge toothy smile and Mal couldn't help but return it as she sat down comfortably next to the boy who at the moment looked anything but royalty. It was a cool fall day and Ben had on jeans and a hoodie sweatshirt with the Auradon Prep logo. Mal thought she liked this look much better than all the formal suits he normally had.  
"I brought some brownies." Ben said with a mischievous smirk.  
"Oh yeah?" Mal asked. She narrowed her eyes slightly "what's the smirk for?"  
"They're just some special brownies I made when my parents were in Agrabah" Ben said with a shrug and a wink. Then helped himself to one and offered the container to Mal.

Mal took one and ate it, she was about to grab a second but Ben pulled it away from her "wait a bit and see how one is first." Mal gave the boy a quizzical look but trusted him enough to shrug and lean back against the tree with her sketch book.

A hour later Mal was starting to feel a little off and everything she and Ben said brought on a wave of uncontrolled giggles while Ben relaxed back as if he hadn't a care in the world.

"Ahem, excuse me sire," a snobbish voice said from behind. Mal and Ben quickly turned and Ben scrambled to his feet, almost falling over "Your parents have returned early from their trip and are wanting to know where you are." Cogsworth said as he waddled closer to where Mal and Ben had been sitting.

"Oh Shit." Ben swore, followed by an impressive string of obscenities that made even Mal raise an eyebrow in surprise. Cogsworth took a few steps closer and gave Ben a disapproving look, "May I suggest a quick dip in the lake, it might assist you in .. uh clearing your mind."

Ben understood the hint and quickly stripped down to his shorts before taking a plunge in the quite cold water, not noticing Mal's face as she gasped at the sight of Ben's scarred back. When he emerged and took a towel from Cogsworth (that man really did think of everything) he noticed Mal's face. She slowly walked to her friend and studied his chest and back carefully touching a couple of the scars, courtesy of his father. "Oh Ben" she said softly realizing at that moment that Ben was the first person in Auradon that understood the VKs fear of their own parents.

"Mal," Ben said grasping the girls small hands, "its ok. "

Mal shook her head, unable to speak for a moment as tears threatened to fall, "I thought Auradon was supposed to be different." she whispered.

"Sire, we must hurry." Cogsworth interrupted the moment handing the Prince a dry set of clothes. Ben nodded and found a private place to change while Mal and Cogsworth looked awkwardly at each other. "Miss Mal, please dispose of the um… snack. It would not due to have any one, or any animals, find it."

Mal nodded as Ben came back. He and Cogsworth quickly left. Mal sat back down at the tree and put her head in her hands.

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	29. A perfect storm

**Lots of angst in this one.. It really isn't very nice and cuddly. You've been warned.**

As always the weekend flew by. There is just never enough time to get everything done in the weekend that you want to. It doesn't matter if you live in Auradon, the Isle, or some magical land called New York City. Weekends are just never long enough. Monday started out okay. Classes went reasonably, everyone managed to stay out of trouble some how and Fairy Godmother managed to be less annoying than normal.

" You guys want to head over to the lake?" asked Mal.

Jay shook his head "Away game today, I've gotta head over to the locker rooms. It's all the way in Neverland so I'll be back late. See ya."

"I've got remedial history with Willerstein." Carlos muttered.

"Oh yeah I forgot about that, will you be at dinner after?" Mal asked.

Carlos shook his head sadly "Probably not, I have detention with Boyle after, who knows how long that will take." Carlos adjusted his book bag and started to head off.

Evie watched Carlos leave her expression didn't even try to hide the worry she was feeling for the youngest of the group, then turning to Mal, "We have a test tomorrow anyway, we're going to the library."

Mal huffed but muttered a "Fine" as the two girls headed off to work on school work.

Carlos had been dreading this first remedial history session with Willerstein. Anita had told him Willerstein wasn't allowed to paddle him anymore, but that brought little comfort to Carlos who knew the man was still capable of making his life horrible. As he entered the classroom Mr. Willerstein looked up from his desk. The man gestured to a desk near the front, Carlos took it as his cue to sit there. He wasn't sure what to expect in these sessions but didn't have high expectations that it would be decent.

"You'll be rewriting each of your failing essays to my standards." Mr. Willerstein began as he handed Carlos his essay on Cinderellaberg. Carlos sighed, even Anita thought this was an excellent paper, he wasn't sure what kind of revising he needed to do to make this acceptable. Carlos had been expecting this and had stopped by the library yesterday to get a variety of books on the kingdom as reference material.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mr. Willerstein snapped as Carlos pulled a fourth heavy tome out of his bag.

Carlos looked up confused, "I got them from the library, to reference."

Mr. Willerstein looked furious although Carlos couldn't understand why.  
"No need for those De Vil. Use the texts in the corner."

Carlos shrugged and went to the bookshelf in the corner of the room to find some material, but after selecting a few books ended up falling back on the books from the library which seemed to cover a more in depth history and wasn't nearly as biased.

Twenty minutes later, when Mr. Willerstein noticed that Carlos had ignored his instructions and was using the material he brought the man completely flipped out.

"Sir, I'm just trying to do my work, it's just different references, you're being ridiculous" Carlos finally argued unwisely.

"Pardon?" Mr. Willerstein asked, his tone should have thrown red flags up like there was no tomorrow, but Carlos was frustrated and didn't notice.

"He's as crazy as my mother." He mumbled just loud enough for his teacher to hear.

Mr Willerstein roughly pulled Carlos out of his seat and instructed him to kneel. Carlos groaned, not this punishment again, he thought bitterly.  
"I didn't do anything wrong!" Carlos protested.

"We're going to get something straight right here and now, De Vil. I'm in charge, not you. When I say not to use these, you don't." here the man started piling the heavy books onto the boys outstretched arms. "You want to use these, this is how you'll use them. Next time I hope you'll follow my instructions a little closer and learn a little respect while you're at it."

Carlos couldn't believe this, he wasn't one for trying to get out of a well earned punishment, he typically took those without complaint (like his mother would have let him complain anyway), but kneeling here holding out these heavy books because why exactly? Oh yeah because Willerstein didn't like that he used reference material that contradicted the man's own narrow kingdom view. If only Anita where back today he was sure she'd not be happy when she found out about this unjust situation Carlos found himself in.

40 minutes later when Willerstein finally let Carlos leave he realized how sore he was, muscle fatigue had set in and Carlos didn't think he'd be able to even lift up his bookbag, but he managed somehow and dragged his feet over to the biology classroom for his detention with Mr. Boyle.

"Your late." the normally well disposed Mr. Boyle said with a frown.

Carlos dropped his bag by his normal chair, "Sorry, Mr. Willerstein only just let me leave." he muttered. Mr. Boyle pressed his lips together.

"Your job is to wash all these." Here he gestured to an array of beakers, flasks, test tubes, petri dishes that all needed to be cleaned. It looked like it would take a while to get through. "And these" he pulled out a rolling cart with boxes filled with more of the same.

Carlos' jaw dropped open, "But sir that will take hours."

"Yes, it will. Waste my time not doing a lab, and I'll waste your time too. Turn off the light when you leave for the evening." The man said as he left the room.

Carlos wanted to cry, he hadn't had much for lunch, and he'd definitely be missing dinner now. His stomach protested loudly. And to top it off he had homework that had been assigned today that was due tomorrow. There'd be no time to do it and he'd get in even more trouble tomorrow. His evening was not going well at all.

Carlos, never one to just sit back and pout, rolled up his sleeves, filled the sink, and got to work.

Several hours later Carlos put away the last of the clean beakers, his arms were so tired he didn't think he could even lift them any more after Willerstein's horrible punishment and then lifting boxes of science equipment and washing everything. All Carlos wanted to do was climb into bed, screw the homework that he hadn't even touched yet, he was too tired to care. He pulled his hoodie on and grabbed his book bag and headed across the quad towards the residential buildings, the weather was starting to chill in November and with the shorter days it was already dark even though it was only 8 o'clock.

"Well well well, look who it is. The runt of the villain pack." A deep voice said and Carlos quickly looked over to where its owner was. It was one of the older boys that he thought he vaguely remembered from his first day of regular classes, he'd managed to stay clear of them for weeks now, but now apparently his luck had run out.

Someone quickly snatched his bag away from him.  
"Hey, give that back" he protested and tried to grab it but it was quickly tossed to a third youth, who now tossed it back to the first. Perhaps if his arms weren't so tired already he might have been successful at getting his things back and now Carlos was surrounded. "Come on guys, just give it back."

The older boys snickered "I don't think so, puppy."

Carlos lunged at the boy currently holding his bag and managed to connect his fist with the boys jaw. Carlos' eyes got wide, he clearly hadn't expected his punch to land so well. The boy narrowed his eyes at the smaller boy. "You're going to regret that."

"Just give me my stuff back, assholes."

At that the boys grabbed at Carlos who managed to dodge their reach and giving his bag up for lost ran towards the nearby building, as he was about to round the corner another boy stepped out and grabbed him.

"Going somewhere?" he mockingly asked as he pushed Carlos back to the group, one of the bullies was able to pin Carlos' arm behind him and the boy who had gotten hit in the jaw came up and suckerpunched the smaller white haired boy.

Carlos gasped for air and felt like none would fill his lungs as the four larger teens dragged him away from the school. Carlos was completely helpless when they dropped him on the ground on the far side of the tourney field and just when he thought he managed to get a lung full of air the kicks began. Someone kicked him in the gut, an other on his back, someone stomped on his fingers as he tried to protect his head, and then a pain in the back of his head and all went black.

/

Evie looked up from the gown she was detailing, "Mal, did you hear Carlos come back yet? He should be back by now. It's after curfew for the 9th graders."

"Nope." responded Mal, not looking up from her drawing.

Evie frowned at Mals disinterest, "I'm going to check his room in case he went by and we didn't see him." Evie couldn't help but feel like something wasn't right, although she couldn't tell what. Evie headed down the hall and opened the boys room, it was unlocked which was a little unusual but certainly not so much that she paid it too much mind. The room was dimly lit with the small nightlight in the corner that automatically turned on when dark, being tossed into small dark spaces was a regular occurrence for isle kids and when Mrs. Radcliffe had discovered Carlos adverse reaction to the dark she had gotten him and Jay, and Mal and Evie little nightlights for their dorms.

"Pup?" Evie whispered into the room, she didn't hear anything but then noticed a boy shaped lump under the blankets on Carlos' bed and his bookbag tossed in the corner. Evie smiled in relief, Carlos must have been really tired to be asleep already, then again he was always the first up. She gently closed the door and went back to her room, the knot in her stomach going away. She smiled at Mal, "He's out like a light already."

Mal gave a little chuckle and went back to her drawing.

/

"Way to go, Jay!"

"That was awesome, the way you jumped over that guy, and then bashed the other guys face!"

"Twenty points in one game, that must be a new record!"

Several teammates gave him high fives or pats on the back. Jay couldn't help grin from ear to ear. They had crushed the Lost Boys 45 to 8. What a way to finish up the season with their last game of the year. They'd know if they could get into the end of year tournament by the end of the week, but with this win their chances looked much better.

"Hit the showers boys!" Coach Jenson called out to his team. "Jay, come see me when you're done." The Lost Boys, were good enough sports to let the visiting team use the showers first knowing they had a 2 hour drive back to Auradon, ok, their Coach Michael Darling made them let the visiting team go first, but that's besides the point. Jay grabbed one of the individual showers like he always did, still not wanting his teammates to see the scars littering his back, and quickly washed up and changed before heading back out to meet Coach Jenson.

"Whats up coach?" Jay asked as he strolled over to where coach was sitting waiting for the team to finish up.

"Have a seat, Jay." Jay did and now felt a little worried as Coach Jenson didn't exactly look happy.

"I got the team's report cards this past weekend, we need to talk about your grades." he started "Now I know you're passing everything at the moment, but you're very close to failing in a couple of subjects. If you want to play any other sports this school year, or be on the team next fall, you need to work harder on getting them up so you're not so close to the edge. As it stands now, one failing test could pull down your average enough to pull you from a team temporarily."

Jay furrowed his brow and frowned, he nodded "I understand, Coach. Is that all?"

Coach nodded and Jay headed back onto the bus, great, just what he needed, more pressure, as if Jasmine and Colin weren't enough.

Jay slumped down in the far back of the bus and pulled out his bookbag, he had a test in chemistry the next day that he wasn't nearly ready for, but with a 2 hour drive ahead of him he figured he could at least try to get a decent grade on it. He pulled out his text and notes to study, when his book fell open there was a folded piece of paper wedged in, Jay curiously opened the paper and read it over, his eyes grew wide and he exhaled in relief as he studied it further.

When Lonnie got on Jay quickly closed his chemistry book and pulled out history to work on his paper. Lonnie smiled and did the same.

"I can't figure out why Carlos has such a hard time with this class." she commented "All Willerstein wants is for us to rephrase what's in the text book and some of the supplemental books he has in his classroom. Almost no thinking involved."

Jay chuckled "Maybe that's the problem. Carlos is smart, sometimes too smart for his own good. On the isle he always got in trouble with the teachers for being smarter than they were. And it doesn't help that Willerstein has it out for him."

Lonnie made an affirmative sound before bending over her notes and writing away. Jay was glad for the long bus ride back to Auradon Prep, he managed to finish the history paper and Lonnie helped him with math. He was feeling a little bit better about it all even if the entire rest of the team kept trying to distract him, and if it hadn't been for coach's warning he probably would have let them as he typically did.

As the team got closer to Auradon that distinct rumble of a storm approaching could be heard. Jay was not a fan but was thankful he was in the bus and soon would be inside the dorms at school where the cold November rain wouldn't bother him.

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	30. It'll be okay

**Continuing on with angst**

Drip. Drip. Drip. Always on the same spot too, right on the side of his face. Carlos groaned, everything hurt and he couldn't figure out what hurt more, his head throbbed, his hand hurt. He tried to take a deep breath and quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. But the dripping on his cheek was what was driving him mad at the moment. He wanted to wipe away the water but immediately found himself unable to move his arms. Carlos forced himself to open his eyes, well eye, as apparently his right eye was swollen shut. Night had fallen and it took a while for Carlos to realize he was at the far end of the tourney field, behind the visiting team bleachers beyond him the vast wooded area separating the school from the township and it was raining, hard. He realized he was laying on his side in what was now a large mud puddle, his head resting on his outstretched arm that he noted was tightly fastened by his wrist to one of the bleacher supports. He tried to sit up but was in too much pain, he could only lay there, in the cold puddle forming around him with the rain. He shivered and closed his eyes hoping that someone would be around soon, with the storm and as far away as he was from any buildings, calling out for help would be fruitless. Setting his white curls back down on his arm Carlos tried to just remain awake until someone found him but it was so hard to do so.

/

Jay yawned, he was very glad to be back in Auradon. He hated away games, but at least he got his homework done, first time for everything.

"Hey C, we won." he said loudly as he walked into their shared dorm room even though he knew it was late and that Carlos was probably asleep. He didn't really care if he woke the younger boy up. But Carlos, who was usually a light sleeper, didn't wake up. Jay glanced over at the lump in the younger boys bed and shrugged "guess you're really tired tonight." he muttered and went about getting ready for bed.

Dude, who had been hiding under Carlos' bed for the last several hours finally came out and started barking to get Jay's attention.

"Dude, shhh, Carlos is asleep." Jay chided the little dog while he bent down and affectionately patted the dogs head. Dude kept barking though and finally jumped up on Carlos' bed and pulled back the blanket with his teeth. Jay stared for a moment before realizing that the body on the bed was really just a pile of clothes, and certainly not a boy.

Jay was quick to spring into actions, he reached Mal and Evie's room in 20 seconds bursting through the door without knocking.

Mal and Evie gave a shocked glare at Jay. They weren't on the Isle anymore, in Auradon you knocked. "Uh hello, rude!" Mal scoffed.

"Where is Carlos?" Jay almost yelled.

Evie looked at him confused "I checked on him couple hours ago, he was asleep."

"Are you sure? Cause there was a pile of clothes on his bed that made it look like he was in his bed."

Realization hit Evie and she glanced at Mal, "Oh Shit." the girls said in unison.

"Evie, call Mrs. Radcliffe and Fairy Godmother. Jay and I will wake up the others to go looking for him." Mal ordered authoritatively. Within minutes the entire floor was up and searching, Fairy Godmother was on her way over with extra security.

Mal and Audrey found Carlos an hour later, he was soaked through and his lips were a light shade of blue. "Carlos!" Mal screamed at the smaller boy trying to wake him up, he moaned and his eyelids fluttered but that was all she could get out of him before an ambulance arrived and he was put in, Mal insisted on going with him and no one was stupid enough to argue with her. She stayed by his side until he was wheeled into the emergency department and a nurse put his foot down about allowing her back while the doctors were working.

Evie, Jay, Jane, and Fairy Godmother arrived within the quarter hour, Ben not long after, he had stopped by their rooms and brought Evie, Mal, and Jay a dry change of clothes knowing they would be staying the night. The next hours passed with a tension in the air that could be felt by anyone that walked into the waiting room that night. No one spoke, no one had to. Mal paced the cooridoors fuming, her magic sparked off of her occasionally. Evie sat quietly and stared at a random chip in the tiled floor, nervously chewing on her finger nails till they bled. Jay stood nearby fiddling with a hacky sack Aziz had introduced him to the game and having something to do with his hands kept Jay from resorting to his isle habits of pickpocketing the other people waiting in the room.

After what felt like weeks but was only a few hours, a doctor emerged and allowed Mal, Evie, and Jay to see Carlos. "He's been sedated." the Doctor advised but wouldn't elaborate further on Carlos's injuries until the Radcliffes got there. Jay climbed into the large recliner in the room and Mal sat down on his lap as they lay back to wait, for something, just listening to the beeps of the machines. Evie immediately climbed into the large hospital bed next to Carlos, giving him a quick peck on the cheek and a cuddle. It was so odd seeing the younger teen laying so still. Carlos was always moving, he never sat still, he even moved in his sleep, sometimes from the nightmares which had him thrashing around getting tangled in his sheets, but even if it was just normal sleep he'd often wake up with his head at the wrong end of the bed or falling out altogether, so to see him laying still not moving at all, Evie couldn't help but let out a small sob and her tears quietly pooled on the pillow making it damp.

Roger and Anita Radcliffe had gotten into their car with in minutes of hanging up the phone, and managed to drive the normally 3 hour car ride in just over 2 to get to Auradon Central Hospital. Carlos was still sedated so the Radcliffes decided to meet with the doctors first, the most serious of the injuries were a bruised kidney and concussion as well as severe abdominal bruising and a couple broken bones in his hand. He'd have to stay in the hospital for at least a week, maybe two.

"We don't know who the culprits are ?" Roger asked Fairy Godmother.

"Not yet, but the police are going through all the surveillance tapes right now."

"He's not going back to school until whoever did this is caught and removed from the school." Anita said firmly.

Fairy Godmother nodded, she had expected as much "It might be a challenge depending on who is involved but I agree with your decision." She knew if some of the old royal lines were involved it would be extremely difficult to hold the responsible party accountable.

Anita nodded sadly, she knew the challenges that were presented, "If its not taken care of before he gets released he's coming home with us. I'll homeschool him for the rest of the semester if I need to. Mary can teach my classes."

"Mary would be a good choice I'll contact Cinderella about it." Fairy Godmother agreed. "Don't worry Anita, we'll find out who's to blame and make sure they are held accountable, it might take a while but we'll figure it out. Hopefully when Carlos wakes up he'll be able to give us some insight as well."

Fairy Godmother and the Radcliffes entered Carlos' room to find Evie lying on the bed playing with Carlos' curls and Mal and Jay in the reclining chair almost asleep.

"You three should head back to the school. There is a car outside that will take you back."

"No." Evie said.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not going, I'm staying right here with Carlos."

"Let them stay tonight." Roger interviend and Fairy Godmother relented once the doctors said there was no harm in the teens staying.

/

Jay woke up with a kink in his neck from sleeping half sitting up with Mal snuggled on his lap, he groaned and tried to stretch making Mal pout at being woken up by his movement. Fairy Godmother and the Radcliffes arrived back to the room not long after the three teens woke up.

"You should go get ready for your classes." the woman said in her overly bubbly voice.

"I'm staying." Evie said firmly.

"That's hardly necessary."

"I don't care, I'm staying with Carlos. I'm not leaving." The blue haired girl crossed her arms stubbornly.

Jay watched the interaction with some interest, if Evie was staying he felt ok going back to classes today, he knew she'd text him if anything came up. Mrs. Radcliff ended up relenting and saying Evie could stay after Evie assured everyone that her missing a day of classes wouldn't hurt because she had straight A's. Mal and Jay couldn't use that argument and they were shooed out the door a few minutes later. Fairy Godmother cancelled their Goodness class so they'd be able to come back as soon as they were done for the day.

Mr. Boyle passed out the tests and Jay had to smile when he read over the questions, he quickly began to answer them and was pleasantly surprised that he was for once, able to finish on time. His other teachers also were surprised that he actually handed in his homework that he had done on the team bus the night before. Mal just gave him a curious look, he'd rarely done homework before, but he managed to have it done for every class today and didn't seem too stressed out about the chemistry test. The day went surprisingly fast for Mal and Jay and before they knew it they were headed back to the hospital to see how Carlos was doing. Evie had sent them a text around lunch saying that the doctors planned to wake him up tonight.

In an effort to stay out of the way Jay and Mal reclaimed the recliner in the corner as they slowly waited for Carlos to wake up.

"He might be out of it and not himself for a while" the doctors warned them.

Carlos groaned a bit as he started moving around while he was waking up, he clearly was in a lot of pain, his groans slowly turning into desperate pleas of "Stop momma", "It hurts", and "I'm sorry"

"Its okay Carlos, she can't hurt you." Evie whispered as she held his hand although it didn't do much good. Carlos slowly opened his eyes which seemed a bit glazed over from all the medication he didn't seem to recognize Evie for a while as he looked around the room clearly terrified and no idea where he was.

Anita came forward "Oh Carlos, we were so worried." she said as she reached a hand out to move some of his curls out of his eyes, a move that she'd done many times since she became his guardian, however Carlos flinched away and began to scream as if she were hurting him terribly.

Jay and Mal exchanged worried glances, Evie was trying desperately to calm the boy down but he didn't even seem to recognize her as Carlos started to call for, of all people, his mother.

"Its like he forgot where we are and… us." Mal whispered but Jay couldn't hear her over Carlos' screaming.

"Carlos," Mr Radcliff finally spoke up in a deep authoritative voice that made everyone in the room freeze. Jay's heart started to pound, his dad always sounded like that right before it got really bad at home, "That is enough of this tantrum, young man." Carlos stilled and his eyes wide with what could only be described as terror as he stared at the tall man in front of him who's deep voice clearly told him he'd be in trouble if he kept screaming. All eyes in the room were on the boy in the bed and the man standing over him, except one other pair of brown eyes which had found the nearest exit and before anyone knew what had happened Mal found herself on the floor as Jay stood up and bolted from the room.

Jay wasn't sure where exactly he was going, he just kept running through the halls of the hospital trying to flee. His heart pounded in his ears so loudly that he couldn't hear the orderlies and staff calling at him or Mal's voice behind him as she tried to catch up. He finally ducked into a small room and tried desperately to hide cursing himself for having grown to big for all the good hiding spots.

"Jay!" Mal yelled she saw a flash of red and yellow and quickly followed into the room where she found her first friend huddled in the corner with his hands covering his head. "Jay, it's Mal. Its ok." she carefully took his wrists and pulled them down a bit so that he could see her, "It's ok." she told him again as she sat next to him and pulled him into a hug as best she could. She was so much smaller than Jay her arms didn't fully reach around his broad shoulders. After a while his shaking stopped and the strong, confident Jay returned, if not slightly embarrassed by being triggered by Mr. Radcliff of all things.

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	31. Where's home?

**This chapter is a little shorter than typical, however I wanted to get something out to you all without making you wait forever. It's not one of my favorites but here it is anyway. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.**

 **And I'm also super excited to have over 100 followers and reviews on this story. Thank you everyone!**

"Jay, lets go for a run or something." Mal suggested after a while, it was probably best not to head back to the hospital room. It wasn't going to do Carlos any good if Jay was having his own issues as well.

Jay nodded and the two teens headed back to Auradon Prep, Mal called Lonnie to join them. Mal wasn't a bad runner but she knew there was no way she'd be able to keep up with Jay after a mile or two. Lonnie was of course up for it and met them at the track after changing.

/

"Carlos, do you know who I am?" Evie said gently once the white haired boy had calmed down just a bit, but it was clear he was still very scared.

Brown eyes studied Evie's face for longer than she was comfortable with, "Evie?" he asked rather than answered. Evie smiled "Yes, that's right. I'm Evie. Do you remember Anita or Roger?" She gestured toward the adults on the other side of the bed. Carlos studied their faces for a while then shook his head.

"Where's momma?" he asked sounding like a scared little boy that just wanted his mom rather than a teen that had left home to go to a boarding school.

"She's at home." Evie answered, "she can't come here right now. Do you know where you are?"

Carlos shook his head again, he was so confused, it was way too clean to be the Isle, but then where were they? Evie looked up at Mrs. Radcliffe with a worried look that the woman shared, it was clear Carlos didn't wake up with all his memories in tact.

"Who were the kids that left?" Carlos asked bringing everyone's attention back to the fact that Jay and Mal had rushed out a few moments before.

Evie looked back at Carlos and studied him before answering "Jay and Mal."

The inquisitive look that was naturally on the freckled face turned dark and angry "Why were they here?" he spat out "Did they do this to me, did they hurt me?"

Roger and Anita looked at each other confused but Evie got even more worried. "No, they didn't hurt you. We were hoping you know who did…" Carlos shook his head and Evie continued "Mal and Jay are our friends."

"Mal's mean." Carlos stated as if everyone knew this crossing his arms stubbornly "and Jay just steals from everyone."

"So you're not friends with them?" Evie questioned, an other shake of the head.

"But we're friends?" she asked. Carlos shrugged "I went to your birthday party a long time ago. But we don't play. I want momma."

Evie nodded "Will you stay in this bed for a few minutes I need to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe alone for a couple minutes, we'll be right back. Okay?"

Carlos scowled but nodded. Evie and the Radcliffes and the doctor that was in the room all went out to the hall, "He doesn't remember Mal and Jay being friends with him, it's like he doesn't remember he's 14 and anything that's happened the last 3 or 4 years. He was 9 or 10 when the four of us all became friends, before that Mal and Jay were a team, and Carlos and I were… we'll I'm not sure what we were, but he doesn't remember any of that." tears silently fell from her eyes as she glanced through the window in the door back to Carlos who's natural curiosity had him pressing random buttons on the nearby machine. Anita turned to her husband and cried into his shoulder.

"I wouldn't worry too much, memory loss is common with brain trauma, there is hope he will make a full recovery in time. Miss," the doctor turned to Evie, "would you please help out with him until he gets used to others, he seems to trust you at least."

Evie wiped her eyes and nodded.

"Uh oh," Anita said as she looked through the window of the door and spotted Carlos attempting to take out the IV in in his hand, everyone rushed back in the room.

/

Mal sat on the bleachers and watched Jay and Lonnie run laps around the track. She'd managed a couple miles herself but then had to call it quits, she was fit, but not "run a marathon because it's Tuesday" fit.

Ben and Jane came over and sat down with her after a while, "How's he doing?" Ben asked as he held Dude in his arms and played with the small dog.

Mal frowned and shrugged "He didn't seem to know where he was." she said sadly while she picked at her shoe laces. "Evie sent a text, told me and Jay not to come back to see him just yet." she continued then snapped her head up, her eyes were watery as tears threatened to fall "Ben, he's scared of me .. and Jay."

Ben scoffed "You're hardly scary." he tried to encourage.

"On the isle I was, and I wasn't very nice to him when we were kids. We weren't always friends." Mal went back to picking at her shoes, slowly peeling the purple paint off to reveal a mustard yellow under.

"He'll remember. Just give him some time." Jane said encouragingly.

Ben pulled Mal into a hug and she leaned into him thankful for his strong arms holding her as she finally let her emotions go and for the first time since she could remember, started to cry.

Jane felt a little like a third wheel at this point so she took Dude from Ben and decided to go and visit Carlos herself.

/

Jay finally had run his emotions out of him, at least for the time being. He wasn't sure how many laps he ran, he knew Mal had stopped around 3 miles and Lonnie said she stopped close to 10, but Jay had kept going. He had seen Mal in Ben's arms for a little while but then apparently they had moved on as well. As he got into the lukewarm shower in the locker room Jay leaned forward onto the wall letting the water wash over him, his scars were still covering his back despite the magical cream that Nurse Flora had given to him and Carlos to help them heal completely. She did say it could take up to a year to work completely. Jay sighed he wasn't sure what to do, what to feel, what to think. Expectations in Auradon were so different, he wasn't sure he could do this here, Mal seemed as lost as he was but at least no one was threatening to take away the one thing she was good at because of her grades. Evie didn't seem to be having any issues at all and Carlos was definitely having the worst it, but with his naturally sweet disposition, innocence, and still was adorable in a way the others weren't the adults and most of the kids felt so bad for him that he was getting all the attention. Jay banged his head on the shower wall, ashamed that he was even slightly jealous of how much everyone fussed over Carlos even though he managed to get himself into some sort of trouble every other day. Turning off the water and grabbing a towel, Jay dried off and got dressed stopping by his tourney locker to grab his clothes, he wasn't sure when they were last washed and figured it might be time. A piece of paper fell out as he opened the door, confused Jay picked it up and glanced at it before shoving it in his pocket and heading back to his room.

/

Evie was sitting with Carlos desperately trying to explain why his mother couldn't come to see him. She was all the more frustrated that Carlos even _wanted_ Cruella to come, it's not like the woman had a maternal bone in her body. There was a knock on the door and Jane poked her head in. "Can I come in?" she asked and Evie waved her in. Carlos just sat there staring as Jane came in.

"You're pretty." Carlos said when Jane came nearer, she blushed deeply and looked down. Dude, who had come in with Jane unbeknownst to Evie and Carlos decided that he was done being overlooked, he barked once and then hopped up onto the bed to give his boy kisses.

It didn't go well. Carlos screamed and Jane quickly scooped Dude up looking at Evie with confusion.

"Carlos, shhhh, it's ok. This is Dude. Carlos please stop." Evie tried to calm him down but the terrified boy was not in a state to be reasoned with. "Just take Dude out, now." she snapped at Jane who nodded and ran out of the room with the little dog just as Anita, Roger, and several doctors headed into the room to help.

Once Dude was safely out of the room Carlos calmed down quickly, "Why the hell would anyone keep a d-dog?!" he spat out in a huff.

No one answered him thinking it would just be best to move on to an other topic at the moment, "Carlos, the doctors say that you can be released tomorrow, but you're not ready to go back to school, we were planning to take you home with us until you're all better. How does that sound?" Anita said gently. Carlos looked at the Radcliffes and then Evie who smiled and nodded encouragingly, going with strange people was really the last thing he wanted to do but it didn't seem like there was much of an option either and so he reluctantly nodded.


	32. We need to talk

**Sorry for the long wait. I was having some trouble getting this out of my head and into the computer. I hope you enjoy and please leave some feedback.**

"How does Carlos manage to watch TV like this?" Jay asked as he rested the top of his head on the carpet, his legs hooked over the back of the couch. "It makes my head feel a bit dizzy."

Evie looked over the top of her chemistry book and raised an eyebrow, "Don't you have homework, or studying to do?" she asked. Now that Carlos had gone home with the Radcliffes Jay spent all his free time in Mal and Evie's room and as much as the girls loved having him around they were getting a little annoyed with him always being around, and rarely studying.

"Nah, I'm all set." Jay predictably responded and continued to watch his show inverted. Evie huffed silently and glanced at Mal who rolled her eyes and went back to her math book.

Evie hadn't mentioned it to the others yet but earlier in the week fairy godmother had called her into her office.

" _You wanted to see me?" Evie asked cautiously after having been told by Mr. Delay to go to the office._

" _Yes, Evie, please come in, have a seat." Fairy Godmother gestured towards the chair in front of her desk. "Could you remind me when you turn 17?" she asked not looking up but rather shuffling papers in Evie's file._

" _December 20." Evie replied a little confused._

" _Ah very good. Well I asked you to come by because some of your teachers are a little concerned." At that Evie looked up confused, her grades were outstanding, even by Auradon standards, "many of them feel you're not being challenged enough and it had been suggested that you move up to the junior classes for the second semester. It would mean that next year in the fall you would be a senior."_

 _Evie gracefully leaned back in her chair, her mind was spinning with what that would mean. "I would graduate a year before Jay and Mal." said said noncommittally._

" _Yes, that's true, but you also need to be honest with yourself, are you bored in class? You may also have noticed that you and Jay are the oldest in your grade, most of the others that are or turn 17 are juniors this year. There are many opportunities afforded to being able to finish high school early, or rather on time in your case, college classes would be available to you after you complete your high school requirements, as well as grants for young entrepreneurs if you are interested in continuing with your 4 hearts business. " Fairy Godmother pointed out._

 _Evie could tell that there was a lot to think about and didn't want to commit to anything on the spot. "Evie, I wrote Snow White about it, we have a holiday coming up where you'll be going to stay with her for a few days, talk it over and think about it, let me know when school starts up again. I'll need some time to adjust your schedule if you do want to move up." Fairy Godmother said gently. Evie just nodded and with all elegance drilled into her she rose up and left the office._

Evie still couldn't believe that they wanted to move her up a grade, she wasn't sure yet what she was going to do about it, talking to Snow first seemed like the best idea and they still had 2 more days before the holiday, but she figured until then her grades couldn't take a sudden drop. Jay being over constantly, and not studying, wasn't helping her though. She put her head in her hands, she didn't want to go to the library to study again, her room was more comfortable but this was getting ridiculous.

"I hope Carlos is ok." Mal said almost to herself. Mal had stopped by to see Carlos before he left the hospital and wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation.

 _Mal put Dude in a small carrier to bring him to visit Carlos, last time when the little dog was loose the white haired boy freaked out, but according to Evie he had started to remember more and Mal though a slow reintroduction to his best friend would be helpful._

" _Come on Dude, let's go see Carlos." she gave the little dog a pat and then closed the door before heading to the hospital. She made her way towards the room and peeked in the doorway window. She smirked at what she saw, Carlos was sitting up in his bed, lips pressed tightly together, and arms crossed stubbornly refusing to take the potion Nurse Flora was trying to get him to take. Mal smirked at the scene._

 _Mr. Radcliffe walked towards the door and stood next to Mal and watched the scene in the room for a moment, "When Carlos stayed with us over break he was very timid and skittish. Was he this defiant on the Isle?" he asked._

 _Mal thought it over a bit, "He would never have tried acting like this with Cruella, if that's what you mean. But you learn at a young age not to eat or drink anything you can't completely identify, especially not a potion."_

 _Roger nodded and watched for another minute before opening the door and stepping in to put Nurse Flora out of her misery. "Carlos." he said, his tone low and Mal though it sounded a little bit like a growl. The boy's head snapped in his direction and locked eyes with Roger. Roger raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms and as if knowing he would be in trouble if he didn't take the potion, Carlos opened his mouth. Nurse Flora quickly poured the liquid in his mouth and the boy swallowed with no further fuss. Mal's jaw dropped open as she watched, it was clear Carlos knew Roger was in charge and knew better than to fight it, but she narrowed her eyes and studied her friend a bit longer. Carlos usually yielded to those bigger and stronger than him, that wasn't unusual, but to do so with no fight at all worried her a little, the only other person Carlos would submit to that easily was Cruella, and everyone knew what would happen to him if he didn't._

 _Mal cleared her throat and Carlos now looked at her, "Hi Mal." he said a little hesitantly. Mal smiled at her friend, "Do you remember we're friends now?" she asked cautiously. Carlos smiled and nodded, "Yeah, and Jay too. And we're in Auradon, but I don't remember why."_

" _That's ok, I'm sure you'll remember more soon. I wanted to introduce you to someone properly." She put the small dog carrier on a side table and wheeled it over. Carlos cautiously looked in at the small dog that lay calmly inside. "This is Dude. And he's really sweet, and won't hurt you at all." Mal gently took Carlos' hand and held it up to the door of the carrier where Dude predictably gave some doggie kisses. After a few more minutes Mal carefully took Dude out and held him firmly as Carlos found his nerve to pet the little dog, and eventually she set Dude on his lap and was rewarded with one of Carlos' bright smiles. "You can take him to the Radcliffes with you. Ben said it was ok."_

" _Really?"_

 _Mal smiled and nodded, "Really. Just get better soon. We're going to miss you." She hugged her friend before leaving._

"Why wouldn't he be ok?" Evie asked.

"Yeah he seemed to like staying there over the last break."

"I don't know." Mal said softly "He seems really intimidated by Mr. Radcliffe."

"Carlos is intimidated by almost everyone, except for maybe Jane." Jay pointed out.

Mal nodded at that and continued on with her work, nevertheless she still was a little uneasy.

/

Finally the last day of classes came before everyone at Auradon Prep went home for a long weekend with their families to celebrate some holiday about being thankful. Mal, Evie, and Jay really didn't understand the point. If you're truly thankful you don't need a holiday to show it. And they were pretty sure several of the Auradon kids wouldn't understand gratitude if it smacked them in the face.

Jay packed up a few of Carlos's things, clothes, his most recent project, and the comic books he'd gotten hooked on. Evie had said she'd make a stop over to see Carlos as Snow White lived the closest to the Radcliffes.

Remedial Goodness class had usually turned into a study hall as Fairy Godmother was pleased with their progress recently however today she looked anything but.

"Evie, Mal, I'm sure you still have a few things to pack up before your rides are here to take you back to your guardians homes. You may leave now to get ready." Fairy Godmother dismissed the girls with a smile and wishing them a good holiday.

The three VKs looked at each other with a little bit of confusion, why was Jay not also dismissed. Jay gave the girls a shrug as they collected their books and left the room with very confused faces.

"Jay, lets go talk in my office." Fairy Godmother suggested, Jay packed up his things and followed the matron, taking a seat in the chair she indicated.

"Jay. Several of your teachers have come to me with concerns about your grades recently." Fairy Godmother started.

"But I've been doing well!" Jay protested.

"Yes, but there is a little concern that you're doing a little too well and have made such significant improvements in an unusually short amount of time. When they call on you in class you consistently get the answers wrong. Your homework is subpar at best, yet your tests are near perfect. It is most atypical."

Jay didn't say anything.

Fairy Godmother sighed. "Please hand me your bag." it wasn't really a request and Jay simply handed her his book-bag without any protest. Fairy Godmother pulled out each folder and looked through everything, then flipped through his books. She pulled out a packet of papers and read them. Her brow furrowing in displeasure. "Where did you get these?"

"Found them."

"Found them where?"

Jay shrugged.

"Jay, did you know these are the answer keys to all your recent exams?"

"Yeah, so? I wasn't looking at them during the exams."

"But you saw them prior to the tests?"

Jay casually leaned back in the chair, unconcerned by the line of questioning "Well yeah, I studied them."

Fairy Godmother sputtered, "Thats cheating!"

"I don't see how."

"You're supposed to learn this material, not just the answers."

"I was told to pass the tests, that's what I did."

"Where did you find these, Jay? Did you go through a teacher's desk or notebook?"

"I didn't steal them if that's what you mean." Jay crossed his arms defensively at the unsaid accusation "Someone put one in my book, I found an other in my gym locker, or shoved under the door to my dorm."

"And it didn't occur to you to turn them in?"

Jay looked confused at the suggestion of such a thing, "I needed to pass, these gave me the answers so that I could do that. Isn't that what you all wanted?"

"NO!" Fairy Godmother yelled finally losing her patience, she took a few deep breaths as Jay watched her apprehensively. "I'm sorry for yelling. We want you to LEARN the material, understand it, be able to apply it, not memorize the answers to a test that you can forget ten minutes later. What you did is considered cheating, and would normally be grounds for expulsion."

That got Jay's attention, he swallowed and his stomach clenched tightly. "Where am I going to go?" Jay asked, the panic quickly swallowing him up.

"You will not be expelled. Aladdin and Jasmine will be here in a few minutes and we will discuss the consequences and what would be most appropriate. Especially since you apparently didn't even realize this was wrong. Perhaps I need to revise my syllabus in the Goodness class."

Just then Jane knocked on the office door and poked her head in "Mom, Aladdin and Jasmine are here."

"Thank you Jane, please send them in."

The next half hour was not very pleasant for anyone in the room, Jay couldn't make eye contact due to the extremely disappointed looks of his guardians. In the end it was decided that Jay would have a one week suspension following this long holiday. He didn't see how this would help him with his classes but Aladdin and Jasmine assured both Jay and Fairy Godmother that they would find a way to help him with his classes.  
Aladdin put his hand on Jay's shoulder "Let's go back to your room and get your stuff." he said as he led Jay out of the office. Jasmine needed a few more minutes to collect herself and calm down, she was irate at this news.


	33. Authors Note

Hi all,

This isn't a new chapter, I just wanted to let you know that I'm not done with this story yet, but the lack of apparent interest in it has caused my muse to pursue other fandoms for a bit. Perhaps when the new movie comes out this summer I'll have some renewed motivation to add to it. But for now this is where its left off.

BlueMoon


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